HUMA 1125 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Pain Practice, Michel De Montaigne, Lucretius
Document Summary
Epicurean seek refinement in life: for christians it means being morally lazy, others: to achieve peace of mind and happiness. Maximize pleasure, minimize pain = practice the virtues: materialists refusal of the transcendence. Weak sense of natural law (one repels, the other attracts) ? question everything, will never know sure knowledge (doesn"t exist) Montaigne"s essays are tries : he rambles, combination of artlessness and art. Easygoing conversation between the reader and him. There are no allegories in his writings. Interested in observing the world around him; always doubts his observations: experience the world. Great capacity for self-examination: i know myself he becomes his own subject (inner movements of the mind, very empirical, individual introspection; self-awareness. Born 1533; died 1592 (kidney stones: mother was of jewish-spanish ancestry, educated in latin, went to law school, married the daughter of a french judge.
