An Apology for Raymond Sebond is widely regarded as the greatest of Montaigne’s essays: a supremely eloquent expression of Christian scepticism. An empassioned defence of Sebond’s fifteenth-century treatise on natural theology, it was inspired by the deep crisis of personal.
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- Apology for Raymond Sebond by Michel de Montaigne
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- Apology for Raymond Sebond
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Apology for Raymond Sebond by Michel de Montaigne
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One of my all time favorite college reads. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Very insightful for a point of view not many think about. The Apology for Raymond Sebond. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was never famous for staying on topic. The titles of his essays, and this book is his longest essay, are pretexts for writing about what interested him at the time.
If you don't know any more about Raymond Sebond after reading this essay than you did before, don't worry about it! If you gave it a slow, thoughtful read, you have experienced one of the greatest minds in all of history asking what was the value of man's mind to arrive at the truth. The answer could be expressed as the saying for which Montaigne is most famous: Is he any happier for it?
Is he any closer to the ultimate truth? Don't be put off by all the quotes from Classical Antiquity. This was, after all, the Renaissance; and Montaigne was, like many of his contemporaries, delighted to see reflections of his thoughts in the writings of the Greeks and Romans.
Many of those quotes are interesting enough to make we want to follow up on Lucretius, Cicero, Marcus Manilius, and others whose names predominate through the essay. Montaigne had the motto "Que scais-je? He was the ultimate skeptic, but forgive the pun he essayed to explain his thoughts more thoroughly, perhaps, than any man who ever lived.
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I heartily suggest you read this, and follow it up with a reading of his greatest essay, "Of Experience. It is not modesty, so much as cunning and prudence, that makes our ladies so circumspect to refuse us admittance into their cabinets before they are painted and tricked up for the public view.
Of what advantage can we conceive the knowledge of so many things was to Varro and Aristotle? Did it exempt them from human inconveniences? Were they by it freed from the accidents that lay heavy upon the shoulders of a porter? Did they extract from their logic any consolation for the gout? Or, for knowing how this humour is lodged in the joints, did they feel it the less? Did they enter into composition with death by knowing that some nations rejoice at his approach; or with cuckoldry, by knowing that in some parts of the world wives are in common?
Apology for Raymond Sebond Summary
On the contrary, having been reputed the greatest men for knowledge, the one amongst the Romans and the other amongst the Greeks, and in a time when learning did most flourish, we have not heard, nevertheless, that they had any particular excellence in their lives; nay, the Greek had enough to do to clear himself from some notable blemishes in his. Have we observed that pleasure and health have a better relish with him that understands astrology and grammar than with others?
Or shame and poverty less troublesome to the first than to the last? Muffle him up in the shades of stupidity and sloth. We must be made beasts to be made wise, and hoodwinked before we are fit to be led. And if one shall tell me that the advantage of having a cold and dull sense of pain and other evils, brings this disadvantage along with it, to render us consequently less sensible also in the fruition of good and pleasure, this is true; but the misery of our condition is such that we have not so much to enjoy as to avoid, and that the extremest pleasure does not affect us to the degree that a light grief does.
Plutarch gives a like example of some one who would not be satisfied in that whereof he was in doubt, that he might not lose the pleasure of inquiring into it; like the other who would not that his physician should allay the thirst of his fever, that he might not lose the pleasure of quenching it by drinking.
Are not our minds more sprightly, our memories more prompt and quick, and our thoughts more lively, in health than in sickness? Do not joy and gayety make us receive subjects that present themselves to our souls quite otherwise than care and melancholy? I am, as it were, misled by the side to which I incline, be it what it will, and carried away by my own weight. Every one almost would say the same of himself, if he considered himself as I do.
Apology for Raymond Sebond
You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email required Address never made public. In one page he's saying that humans are too stupid to try to understand God, or Nature, or Ourselves but he says so in words rather than 15 , just to casually mention that-and I'm paraphrasing- "This is why we can only trust God's will and understand him through his holy writings".
Oh, and there's always his reliance on unconfirmed, anecdotal, silly stories to represent the world. As if "Prince X from Y country doing Z thing" was really a good example to depict the world. An interesting take on Renaissance science. Esteban del Mal rated it it was amazing Jan 16, Celeste C rated it did not like it Dec 18, Steve Villa Nunez Jr rated it liked it May 16, Bruno rated it really liked it Feb 22, Austin Hutchinson rated it really liked it Dec 12, Tim rated it it was amazing Jan 25, Gemma rated it really liked it Jul 02, Craig Barner rated it it was amazing May 23, Brad N rated it it was amazing Jul 05, Kelly Roman rated it really liked it Sep 17, Bharat rated it liked it Feb 11, Grant rated it really liked it Feb 22, Wally rated it really liked it Jan 30, Egija rated it really liked it Jun 21, Tyler Talbott rated it really liked it Apr 21, Zachary Paige rated it really liked it Jul 29, Eddie Watkins rated it really liked it May 29, Nate Slawson rated it it was amazing Feb 01, Altaa rated it it was amazing Nov 05, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
About Michel de Montaigne. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais translated literally as "Attempts" contains, to this day, some of the most widely Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance.
He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais translated literally as "Attempts" contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written. In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman then as an author.