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My Summer with Montaigne
Let’s talk about the essays. Montaigne’s book was titled Essais, meaning, in the Middle French of the day, “tests” or ”attempts.” 1. The literary form we refer to today as the “essay” did not exist. E.B. White wrote essays for the New Yorker. Susan Sontag wrote essays. Even I write an essay every once and Continue reading
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My Summer with Montaigne: “Of Anger”
“It seemed to me as if I had myself written the book, in some former life, so sincerely it spoke to my thought and experience.” – Emerson on Montaigne’s Essays Anger “moves us; our hand does not guide it, it guides our hand; it holds us, we do not hold it.” I am slow to Continue reading
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My Summer with Montaigne: “To Learn to Philosophize is to Learn to Die”
Many years ago in high school, or perhaps it was middle school, I can’t recall, my teacher placed on a table a one hundred-year calendar. There were two standard pages together containing 100 little boxed years, and within each box, 12 month boxes, and smaller still, such that you had to squint or use a Continue reading
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My Summer with Montaigne: “Of Solitude”, pt. III
“These essays are an attempt to communicate a soul. On this point at least he is explicit. It is not fame that he wants; it is not that men shall quote him in years to come; he is setting up no statue in the market-place; he wishes only to communicate his soul.” Virginia Woolf on Continue reading
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My Summer with Montaigne: “Of Solitude”, pt. II
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” Continue reading
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My Summer With Montaigne: “Of solitude”, pt. I
I thought it fitting to start this little project by considering Montaigne’s writings on solitude. I say this because this summer, like the past half dozen summers, I am again out in the woods and in the mountains. Though this existence isn’t solitude in the extreme, it is a degree of solitude. There are far Continue reading
About doug
You might say that I’m philosopher in the classical sense, that is, “One who loves knowledge.” That sounds awfully pretentious, but I don’t know how else to put it. I’ve spent my life chasing questions, diving into wisdom traditions ancient and modern, including the philosophical schools of Existentialism, Pragmatism, and the ancient Greeks, as well as several of the Eastern traditions, principally Zen Buddhism and Taoism. Admittedly, I’m no expert on anything, just a curious pilgrim.
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...the house I live in... 