Michel de Montaigne Accidental Philosopher [Paperback]

This book treats Montaigne as a serious thinker in his own right.Michel de Montaigne has always been acknowledged as a great literary figure but never thought of as a philosophical original. This book is the first to treat him as a serious thinker in his own right, taking as its point of departure Montaigne's description of himself as an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher . This major reassessment of a much admired but also greatly underestimated thinker is for historians of philosophy and scholars in comparative literature, French studies and the history of ideas.Michel de Montaigne has always been acknowledged as a great literary figure but never thought of as a philosophical original. This book is the first to treat him as a serious thinker in his own right, taking as its point of departure Montaigne's description of himself as an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher . This major reassessment of a much admired but also greatly underestimated thinker is for historians of philosophy and scholars in comparative literature, French studies and the history of ideas.Michel de Montaigne has always been acknowledged as a great literary figure but never thought of as a philosophical original. This book is the first to treat him as a serious thinker in his own right, taking as its point of departure Montaigne's description of himself as an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher . This major reassessment of a much admired but also greatly underestimated thinker is for historians of philosophy and scholars in comparative literature, French studies and the history of ideas.Acknowledgements; Note on the texts; Introduction; Part I. A New Figure: 1. 'That is where he got it!': Montaigne's caprices and the humours of ancient philosophy; 2. Bending and stretching the categories of traditional metaphysics; 3. The essay as philosophical form; Part II. Accidental Philosophy: 4. The circular dialectic of self-knowledge; 5. 'What it means to believe'; 6. The latentl£6