Though a practicing Catholic, Montaigne was a thoroughgoing skeptic. Man can know nothing, his reason being insufficient to arrive either at a natural-law ethics or a firm theology. As Montaigne put it, “reason does nothing but go astray in everything, and especially when it meddles with divine things.” And for a while, Montaigne adopted as his official motto the query, “What do I know?”
The Skeptic as Absolutist: Michel de Montaigne | Murray N. Rothbard
It is a favorite conceit of modern, 20th-century liberals that skepticism, the attitude that nothing can really be known as the truth, is the best groundwork for individual liberty. But the truth is precisely the opposite: the skeptic has no ground on which to stand to defend his or others’ libert... Read more
Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure -- and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work.
Here’s the video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSE4rglxbY
Nice idea but what does Montaigne know?
Though a practicing Catholic, Montaigne was a thoroughgoing skeptic. Man can know nothing, his reason being insufficient to arrive either at a natural-law ethics or a firm theology. As Montaigne put it, “reason does nothing but go astray in everything, and especially when it meddles with divine things.” And for a while, Montaigne adopted as his official motto the query, “What do I know?”
Mentioned in a TED by De Botton, worth watching, humbling for high-horse philosophers to say the least.
For better context – you can read part of his work on Google Books