81: Michel de Montaigne - “What Do I Know?”

We've finally arrived at the conclusion of The Gay Science. The theme of these final sections is perspectivism - we have opened up a "new infinite", penetrating beyond narrow, limited views of the world that have always made grand claims to universalism but have only ever trapped ...  Show more

We incomprehensible ones - how our thought branches in every direction, how willing we are to shed our bark, to grow, to change! In this episode, we discuss, among many other sections, important passages such as "What is Romanticism" - in which Nietzsche explains how he departed ...  Show more

Centuries before Proust's Remembrance of Things Past took us on a tour of memory and James Joyce played with stream of consciousness, a 16th century nobleman - Michel de Montaigne - developed a wholly new style of reflective prose that examined his place in the world. ...

In his “Essays” Montaigne uses his wit, insight, and humanist training to tackle his favorite subject: Montaigne.

On this episode of the podcast, we learn about Michel de Montaigne. We first discuss how a case of 16th century road rage led to a near-death experience which ironically helped Montaigne overcome his fear of dying. Next, we learn why Montaigne valued personal experience above all ...  Show more

We're joined in this episode by a leading expert on one of the most famous works of philosophy ever written: Descartes' Meditations.