Syllabus
Course-outline 1. Sketching “a sincere portrait” of one’s self. Glory, Presumption, and the storytelling of one’s own life (I, 26, 31; II, 7, 10, 14, 16, 17, 37; III, 10). 2. The shame of saying “I”: Pascal vs Montaigne 3. Painting a true image: religious painting and philosophy 4. Scepticism, theology and philosophy (II, 12; III, 9)
Annotation
MA module
The Essays by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) is a difficult text, just like the attempt to find in them an order is: each essay deals with a different topic, and the treatment of each topic is often made up by a subtle web of other topics. One easily falls under the impression of being confronted to a chaotic text as well as to an author, who jumps from one argument to another. But the key to access the text is provided by Montaigne himself in the premise to the reader: the aim of the Essays is that of “painting a sincere portrait of one’s self”. This course will focus on such declaration, which is developed by Montaigne in his book and is at the core of his philosophical project. What is the self he talks about? And how does this reconnect with the “culture of the soul” he intends to deploy, whilst describing his own but also other kind of human experiences (from Julius Caesar and Epaminondas, as heroes of the past, to the cannibals of the “New world”), by relying on the fact that each human being “brings in herself the form of humanity”?
These are some of the main questions around which the course will revolve. Other instruments to better understand the meaning of the utterance “sincere portrait” will be provided by the study of the criticisms of readers such Pascal and Rousseau as well as by some incursion in history of art: criticisms such that of Pascal become clearer, if put beside the account of “true images” of the religious of Port-Royal and put into practice by the painters Philippe (1602-1674) and Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne (1631-1681).
NB: Permanent link to Zoom meetings on Moodle. Please register to the Moodle page of this course to access it