Michel de Montaigne was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. Although he is best known for his essays and his study of literature, he was also an admired and respected as a statesman. His essays led a major role by influencing writers from all over the globe, including well known Renaissance men like William Shakespeare. His works of literature are well known and studied by many people from all over the world. Montaigne was born into a very wealthy family on February 28, 1533 in the town of Saint Michel de Montaigne. Soon after birth, his father sent him to a small cottage to live the first 3 years of his life with a peasant family in order to “draw the boy close to the people”. After these years, Montaigne was sent back to his family estate and was taught Latin as his first language. Later in his …show more content…
These books were titled “The Essays of Montaigne”, and referred to the concept of human life, as well as himself, holding views of politics, the human body, education, emotions, death, the world, and many other topics. In many of his essays, he holds skepticism towards specific principles. For example, in his book, “Apology for Raymond Sebond”, Montaigne states that he obeys and is loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. He explains that he follows Catholic religion solely on the reason that he was born and raised on Catholicism as the traditional religion of his country. He also wrote that religion is not spread through god, but through the people of faith. “God owes his extraordinary aid to faith and religion, not to our passions. People are the leaders here and make use of religion” (Montaigne 5). He criticizes that people guide religion, not god. This skepticism has been known to impact the work of many other philosophers. Because of Montaigne, other writers have been effected with a new way to write, which changed
Samuel de Champlain, who is referred to as the Father of New France, was born in the Brouage, Saintonge province, Western France. He was born to a protestant family around 1570. His father Anthoine de Champlain was a sea captain. The fact that his father worked in the high sea as a navigator, gave Samuel a strong desire to be a sailor and an explorer. This came when he was barely twenty years, under the guide of François Grave, he made his first voyage trip to the North America. Samuel Champlain never acquired a formal education in either Greek or Latin literature, but he learnt to navigate, drawing art of nautical charts, and writing. He also learnt the fighting techniques as part of a requirement for French sailors and later he was enrolled as a soldier in the army under King Henry.
Claude Monet played an essential role in a development of Impressionism. He created many paintings by capturing powerful art from the world around him. He was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris, France. Later, his family moved to Le Havre, Normandy, France because of his father’s business. Claude Monet did drawings of the nature of Normandy and time spent along the beaches and noticing the nature. As a child, his father had always wanted him to go into the family grocery business, but he was interested in becoming an artist. He was known by people for his charcoal caricatures, this way he made money by selling them by the age of 15. Moreover, Claude went to take drawing lessons with a local artist, but his career in painting had not begun yet. He met artist Eugène Boudin, who became his teacher and taught him to use oil paints. Claude Monet
Europeans during the 16th Century had made unique technological and intellectual advancements, they expanded their knowledge and continued to spread their dominance across the world. These advancements perpetuated the idea that their race was superior to other races and that they had the right to hold other groups of people accountable for what they saw as transgressions. Europeans felt the need to control and make sure that all groups of people were following their moral state of conducts. In History of A Voyage to the Land Of Brazil, Jean De Lery introduces the main motivation of the Europeans journey to the Americas by emphasizing that it was influenced by Christian values ( Lery 3). This shows how the concept of Christianity is important
Michel de Montaigne was one of the most influence writers of the French Renaissance. He is famous for inventing the essay. He compiled 107 of his essays in to the book entitled Essays. In the introduction to his book, Montaigne says "I am myself the subject of my book." (Goebel, ed 179) Many of his essays are about himself, however, in some cases he strives to understand the world around him. In Of Cannibals, Montaigne seeks to understand the "barbarians" of the New World.
At the age of eleven, the marquis was sent to school in Paris at the College du Plessis. He resided there for four years, learning various subject matter and proper etiquette that would enable him in change to become an educated and well-mannered noble. The curriculum included Latin, the study most emphasized in France at the time; and French rhetoric, which he greatly favored (Gottschalk 18, 19).
René Descartes was a French philosopher born in La Haye, France, on March 31, 1596. In the 17th century. Now that town is now named after him, because of the great things he has done. He spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic He had two siblings and was the youngest. His father and mother's name were Joachim and Jeanne Brochard. His mother died before his first birthday. In addition, his father was in the provincial parliament as a council member. After their mother died, Joachim had the kids go live with their grandmother on their mom's side. They stayed there even though their father eventually remarried. Even though their father did not want them around, he still wanted the best education for his children so he sent René when he was eight, to boarding school to the Jesuit college of Henri IV in La Flèche. And he stayed there until he was 15.
Is Michel Foucault a historian or not? At the beginning of the analysis on Foucault’s historical analysis, what should be acknowledged is that none of Foucault’s works refer to his previous ones and every work is based upon a new construction of theory and method which shakes the standard norms of history writing and put his methods under suspicion by some historians. On the other hand, many others favor his work; because of Foucault’s specific approach, Gutting calls him as an ‘intellectual artisan’ who was an expert of producing intellectual equivalents of material objects and especially three kinds of them which are history, theory and myth. (Gutting 1996, 3-6) Thomas Flynn answers this question by claiming that Foucault’s all major works are histories of a
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. His parents, Isaac and Suzanne Rousseau, were watchmakers. Rousseau inherited the duty of being a “citizen” from his father. He was very proud of this position, and often signed his name in his books “Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva”. Geneva was a Calvinist state ruled by John Calvin’s ideas of Protestantism. His mother died nine days after his birth, and his father was exiled after getting into an argument with an aristocrat. He wrote in memoir “Confessions”, “...my birth cost my mother her life, and was the first of my misfortunes.” He was sent to live with a pastor, who soon sent him away to become an apprentice of an engraver. He was not skilled at it, and soon became unhappy. With the help of Madame de Warens, a Roman Catholic converter, he ran away to Turin, Italy in 1728. He converted to Catholicism the same year. Madame de Warens helped to educate him, and found Rousseau multiple jobs. In the course of this time, he became a traveling musician, music copyist, teacher, and trained to be a Catholic priest. He also worked as a servant in a noble household. During this time, the mistress of the household, Madame de V...
The book The Persian Letters by Montesquieu is a fictional novel that was written by the author so he could comment on the society in which he was living. This novel has served as a good example of the ideas that were present during the early Enlightenment. There are many ideas and themes that Montesquieu discusses by using the point of view of two Persian travelers in Europe that correspond with letters to each other and others back in Persia. By using a foreigner's perspective, Montesquieu was able to present things in a way that gave a much more lasting effect then if he had used two Frenchman commenting on their own country. Through the many themes in the book, one that is prevalent is Montesquieu's attitude and ideas towards religion. The use of a Muslim Persian is quite effective in commenting on Christianity because the religions are alike in that they are both monotheistic, which can be good for drawing comparisons. Montesquieu believes that God is just and obedience to his laws is crucial. He does not see anything wrong with having different religions because all of them have precepts that are useful to society. All the different religions promote obedience to the law and require their followers to be good and just. He believes that even if there was no God these ideas can still help society function correctly. Montesquieu also criticizes numerous aspects of established religion and shows that he sees it as useless and so he responds to it with indifference. He feels God's precepts are of the greatest importance and that is exactly what has been lost from the established church. Montesquieu's beliefs were also similar to many of the other philosophes. They criticized the established church and 'certainly opposed the ritual forms of both Catholic and Protestant worship'; (O'Brien et al 631).
Throughout Montaigne’s and Descartes written work they used doubt as a method to attaining knowledge about the world and about themselves. Descartes believed that preconceived knowledge gained through learning and the senses must be set aside in order to discover certainties. Montaigne believed that there were no certainties because our knowledge was attained through our senses, and thus everyone’s knowledge would be different, because everyone senses things differently. Either way both men turned into themselves to find the knowledge they described in their philosophies. They both left us with one important bit of knowledge to carry with us throughout our lives, accept nothing, and question everything.
His essays tell the importance of a man that goes on through life like he represents not only himself, but also every other person he sees and meets (Masterpieces 258). He used his writings to challenge traditional thought (Siepmann 300).
Montaigne, Michel de. The Complete Essays of Montaigne. Trans. DonaldM. Frame. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1958.
Exploring Modern Day Artists: Jean- Michel Basquiat. Jean- Michel Basquiat also known as SAMO, is an amazing and inspirational modern day artist known for his neo-expression graffiti and paintings which consist of distinctive symbols, diagrams and a series of imagery which symbolized his heritage, struggles through life, and a new youthful movement which inspired experimental artists to express themselves. Being the descendant of Haitian and Puerto Rican ancestry, Basquiat’s diverse culture is a main factor behind his creative tactics and his artwork. Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 22, 1960.
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet during the 19th century. He was not only very successful as a poet, but also as a translator, essayist and critic (“Charles Baudelaire – Biography”). Baudelaire is most famous for his poetry and is regarded as one of the greatest French poets of all time. His work was some of the best of the 19th century, influencing the next generation of poets and those to come. He had a great impact on various literary movements such as Romanticism, Modernism, and Symbolism. Not only was he able to revolutionize French poetry, but he was able to revolutionize poetry throughout the world.
Leonardo da Vinci, the best known Renaissance Man, because he was interested in and very informed about a lot of different subjects. (Landua, Sara) Da Vinci was a genius painter, sculptor and architect. In addition, he also dabbled in engineering, military science, anatomy, botany, geology, geography, hydraulics, and aerodynamics. Designs for