Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was a philosopher of skeptical nature. He was one of the greatest writers of the Renaissance period of France. His essays are a bit difficult to understand as they are written in a disorderly manner to make sense to a modern reader. However, if we look closely as the context of which he was writing, we will notice self-reflection. The essays are filled with a lot of cometary on the cultural and political life of medical France.
His skeptical nature compels him to give a sharp analysis of the rhetoric of Renaissance. According to Montaigne, they are fake and manipulative. The essays are actually his observations and thoughts on the Renaissance world. The essays are organized in a chronological way. Montaigne did not really approve the oratory of sixteenth century. For him, rhetoric and oratory were the two methods used by the government to aggravate the prejudices and passions of common ignorant people. The vulgar people who have good skill in oratory can lead the general mass into believing something. The general people would lose their power of reason.
Montaigne pointed out that classic Greek empire and Roman Empire scrambled just because people relied upon empty and sweet-sounding words. Montaigne criticized latinizes of France and a bunch of people who attended oratory schools in Paris. He believed that these students come out with the ability to create wonderful speech but they do not acquire knowledge. As a result, they are not wise. There is another theme on which Montaigne wrote multiple essays and that is, what should be considered as virtuous and what should be considered as bad. In his opinion, no matter what the work is, be it a daily routine or grand event, one must always strive for perfection by reaching beyond himself or herself.
It is a good thing to go beyond one's limit. This self-education is very important. He himself was a well educated and well-read man and believed that only by immersing himself in the books, he was able to find the profound truth of the world. These truths can not be known only by listening to oratory.
Marriage, for Montaigne, was very important as it is the only way to raise children. He did not have any regard for the intense passion of romantic love as it is harmful to the freedom of the two people involved. So he proclaimed," Marriage is like a cage". The people are always in the cage want to get out and the people outside the cage want to get in. For education, he believed in experience-based education. Montaigne was also against the idea of imperialism.
