Description
This course explores the question “How do we live? ” based on the philosophy of the celebrated French Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne lived in 16th century France, a time similar to our own, riven by deep political and religious conflict. Each class will depart from one or more of his answers to the question, How to live? developed in his bestseller Essays (a word he coined). To frame each class, we will read selections from Sarah Bakewell’s book How to live: A life of Montaigne. In this engaging book, Bakewell adroitly weaves Montaigne’s biography into his philosophy of life. This class meets every other week.
