Montaigne

Life without Law

Pierre Manent (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

280 Seiten

2024
University of Notre Dame Press (Verlag)
978-0-268-10782-6 (ISBN)

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In Montaigne: Life without Law, originally published in French in 2014 and now translated for the first time into English by Paul Seaton, Pierre Manent provides a careful reading of Montaigne’s three-volume work Essays. Although Montaigne’s writings resist easy analysis, Manent finds in them a subtle unity, and demonstrates the philosophical depth of Montaigne’s reflections and the distinctive, even radical, character of his central ideas. To show Montaigne’s unique contribution to modern philosophy, Manent compares his work to other modern thinkers, including Machiavelli, Hobbes, Pascal, and Rousseau. What does human life look like without the imposing presence of the state? asks Manent. In raising this question about Montaigne’s Essays, Manent poses a question of great relevance to our contemporary situation. He argues that Montaigne’s philosophical reflections focused on what he famously called la condition humaine, the human condition. Manent tracks Montaigne’s development of this fundamental concept, focusing especially on his reworking of pagan and Christian understandings of virtue and pleasure, disputation and death. Bringing new form and content together, a new form of thinking and living is presented by Montaigne’s Essays, a new model of a thoughtful life from one of the unsung founders of modernity.

Throughout, Manent suggests alternatives and criticisms, some by way of contrasts with other thinkers, some in his own name. This is philosophical engagement at a very high level. In showing the unity of Montaigne’s work, Manent’s study will appeal especially to students and scholars of political theory, the history of modern philosophy, modern literature, and the origins of modernity.

Pierre Manent is professor emeritus of political philosophy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He is the author of numerous books, including Natural Law and Human Rights: Toward a Recovery of Practical Reason (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020). Paul Seaton is the Richard and Barbara Fisher Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary’s Seminary & University. He has translated multiple works from French to English, including books by Rémi Brague, Chantal Delsol, and Pierre Manent.

Translator’s Foreword Introduction: The Word and the Promise

Part 1. The War of Men

1. To Save One’s Life

2. To Compare Oneself

Part 2. The Powers of the Word

3. From Rhetoric to Literature

4. The Word and Death

Part 3. The Mysteries of Custom

5. A New World

6. Command Reason

7. Three Conditions of Men

Part 4. Life Without Law

8. Governed Men

9. Nature and Truth

Erscheinungsdatum	05.07.2024
Reihe/Serie	Catholic Ideas for a Secular World
Übersetzer	Paul Seaton
Verlagsort	Notre Dame IN
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften
ISBN-10	0-268-10782-3 / 0268107823
ISBN-13	978-0-268-10782-6 / 9780268107826
Zustand	Neuware