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
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