JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of sixteen books, including “When everything fails, try this” (2009), “Rationality is the way to happiness” (2009), “The philosophy of builders” (2010), “The 10 principles of rational living” (2012), “Rational living, rational working” (2013), “Consistency: The key to permanent stress relief” (2014), “On becoming unbreakable” (2015), “Thriving in difficult times” (2016), “Causality: Aristotle’s life and ideas” (2024), “Foresight: Schopenhauer’s life and ideas” (2024), and "Constancy: Michel de Montaigne's life and ideas" (2025).
All content for John Vespasian is the property of John Vespasian and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of sixteen books, including “When everything fails, try this” (2009), “Rationality is the way to happiness” (2009), “The philosophy of builders” (2010), “The 10 principles of rational living” (2012), “Rational living, rational working” (2013), “Consistency: The key to permanent stress relief” (2014), “On becoming unbreakable” (2015), “Thriving in difficult times” (2016), “Causality: Aristotle’s life and ideas” (2024), “Foresight: Schopenhauer’s life and ideas” (2024), and "Constancy: Michel de Montaigne's life and ideas" (2025).
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) devoted twenty years of his life to writing essays on everything under the sun. He chose questions that he found intriguing, researched them thoroughly, and enumerated the arguments in favour and against. Although Montaigne deployed massive efforts to research, he seldom reached definite conclusions on anything. He gave a detailed overview of facts and their possible interpretation, but refrained from taking sides, arguing that the truth is subjective. Montaigne’s subjectivity undermines the intellectual appeal of his essays. What’s the point of studying a subject thoroughly if no conclusion can be drawn? Why devote one’s energies to learning if the truth is relative, changeable, or unknowable? Was Montaigne conscious of the intellectual weakness of his approach? Absolutely, but the problem is that he considered subjectivity a moral virtue. Sadly, he mistook indecisiveness for “moderation” and cowardice as “humility.” Montaigne regarded moral indifference as “pragmatic” and procrastination as “prudence.” As a result, his essays shoot in all directions, but fail to hit any targets. Montaigne forgets that the purpose of wisdom is action, not abstract speculation. Relativism rendered Montaigne impervious to logic, blind to inconsistencies, and fearful of clarity. He tried to pass off his confusion as “tolerance,” while he infringed every principle set forth by Aristotle (384-322 BC). As a result, Montaigne proved unable of intellectual passion and coherence. To make things worse, since he could not make his mind on any issue, he came up with spurious explanations. Take for instance his essay “That our desires are increased by difficulty.” Instead of establishing a definite moral code that can guide readers, he emphasises that role that external factors can play in human desires. The reason why humans pursue goals that are out of reach, argues Montaigne, is precisely because those goals are hard or impossible to attain. People would be happier, he advises, if they abandoned those ambitions and enjoyed what they have. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaigne-and-the-nature-of-truth/
John Vespasian
JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of sixteen books, including “When everything fails, try this” (2009), “Rationality is the way to happiness” (2009), “The philosophy of builders” (2010), “The 10 principles of rational living” (2012), “Rational living, rational working” (2013), “Consistency: The key to permanent stress relief” (2014), “On becoming unbreakable” (2015), “Thriving in difficult times” (2016), “Causality: Aristotle’s life and ideas” (2024), “Foresight: Schopenhauer’s life and ideas” (2024), and "Constancy: Michel de Montaigne's life and ideas" (2025).
