Michel de Montaigne

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Michel de Montaigne The world is a place of chaos nowadays. At every turn of a corner, there is desolation triggered from humanity's sidetracked views of what the world is about. With all this deception and superficiality, pureness in the human soul seems almost non-existent. Michel de Montaigne recognizes the essential need of this purity for the improvement of society in his Essays. Although the main topics he is focusing own are his own nature, own habits, and own opinions, he uses these personal vignettes to illustrate larger truths about man and his behaviors, his strengths and weaknesses. He subtly forces us to see the materialistic ideals that supposedly make us "happy" and dares us to see how it has tainted our minds and souls. Through his work he sets out to encourage man in the careful study of himself, in order to understand life and the world around him. The meaning of purity in humans to Montaigne is expressed in his short note to the reader, "to live under the sweet liberty of Nature's primal laws" (3). To have purity meant to have simplicity, to live cont...

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