FREN 4540

Montaigne and the Philosophy of Catastrophe

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2020-2021 Catalog.

How might philosophy respond to catastrophe? The Wars of Religion in France and throughout Europe offered continual violence, trauma, and social upheaval. The Essais of Michel de Montaigne responded to this context by elaborating a new form of skepticism, which creates a space for more humane ethics (including some of the earliest discussions of religious and racial tolerance) and for freedom of thought (a relatively new concept in the western world), by means of a radical questioning of the functioning of political, religious, and intellectual authority. What Montaigne offers is both a practical and intellectual model for coping with extreme and omnipresent violence and social conflict, a model that presents difference as a necessary condition of physical and psychic survival.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: FREN 2310, CASE Q++.

Language Requirement Satisfies Option 1.

Distribution Category (KCM-AS, ALC-AS, ETM-AS)

When Offered Spring.

Breadth Requirement (HB)

Comments All texts will be in French. Course conducted in French.

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