The Study On Montaigne’s Skepticism

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne(1533—1592), is the humanistic thinker in France during the Renaissance. In that times he lived, aspiration and respects towards classical culture and art filled in minds of French nobility and also the masses.Meanwhile, the thirty-year religious wars brought about strict limits on thoughts and severe damage to heretics. All these left deep impression on Montaigne. Yearning for ancient culture and unstable social reality seed scepticism in Montaigne’ s thoughts.Words carved in Montaigne’ s medal present the core meaning of his pyrrhonism,namely, “what do I know?”. He doubts people’s capability of rational cognition based on uncertain judgment and reliability of classic philosophers because of contradiction among different streams of classical philosophy. There are also suspects from him on authority of Christianity resulted by many speculations on gods and on superiority of mankind for harmonious coexistence between people and other creatures. Skepticism on all rather than judgment dominates Montaigne’ s thoughts.His thoughts in politics, religion, life, moral philosophy and cultural relativism come from doubts. It is can be seen that skepticism nurtures Montaigne’ s introspection and his critics on human nature.Montaigne’ s cultural relativism turns out to be one kind of worship and compliment towards foreign civilization out of skepticism and his political thinking acknowledges customs and laws. Besides, he carries suspicion in life to seek spiritual freedom and look back to pure friendship and judge the good and the evil. Thereafter,all his thoughts originates from suspicion, develops from himself to others, and eventually come into being through reality disclosure and self-examination.In the era full of wars, social clashes and contradictions become the main melody of his works. His thoughts are covered by confusion but also filled with rethinking and hopes. Montaigne’s thinking of skepticism builds one bridge between 16 th century and 17 th century when enlightenment thinkers and romanticists get some insights more or less from him. That is to say, freedom in thoughts upgrades earlier than in action. Montaigne’s skepticism and tolerance will be quite constructive to a such multi-culture society today.