Jean-Jacques Rousseau Group: Montaigne's Essays (1580).

At this meeting we'll turn to a selection of Michel de Montaigne's essays. I'll be reading from an edition of John Florio's translations, published in 1603, which can be found here: https://annas-archive.org/md5/98b81733d065cff0e98d3a3dd33eaf04
If anyone wants to read a more recent translation, here is a good one: https://archive.org/details/MontaigneEssayscompleteScreech.num

The following texts should be read in advance:
That to Philosophize Is to Learn How to Die,
Is Folly to Refer Truth or Falsehood to Our Sufficiency,
Of Friendship,
Of the Cannibals,
Of the Inequality That Is Between Us,
and Of Age,
which is the order that appears in the Florio translation.

Rousseau wrote on a wide variety of subjects, but the group will first delve into his political theory. And, while the group will concentrate on Rousseau, we may also take a look at other writers of the French Enlightenment; i.e. Montesquieu, Diderot, and, although he was a bit earlier, Montaigne.

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About Montaigne's Essays:

Michel de Montaigne’s Essays (first published in 1580) mark a turning point in literary and philosophical history, establishing a new, deeply personal mode of writing. Montaigne’s innovation was to turn inward, making his own thoughts, experiences, and uncertainties the very subject of his inquiry. In contrast to the rigid scholastic traditions of his time, Montaigne embraced doubt, changeability, and the shifting nature of human understanding. His essays, ranging across topics from friendship and education to death and the nature of experience itself, are characterized by a conversational tone and a skepticism that is gentle rather than corrosive. The very word essai, meaning "trial" or "attempt" in French, reflects Montaigne’s tentative, exploratory approach to truth—an attitude that continues to resonate with modern readers.

The influence of Montaigne’s Essays has been profound and wide-ranging. His pioneering embrace of subjectivity paved the way for later autobiographical and philosophical writing, inspiring figures such as Blaise Pascal, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and even Friedrich Nietzsche. Writers and thinkers admired not only his content but also his form—the flexible, digressive structure that allowed ideas to unfold organically. In a broader sense, Montaigne contributed to the development of modern notions of individuality, skepticism, and humanism. His insistence on the value of personal experience over rigid doctrine remains a cornerstone of liberal thought, and his open, questioning spirit continues to offer a model for intellectual humility and exploration.