SF II 102Social Foundations II Michel de Montaigne Apology for Raymond Sebond

Michel de Montaigne ()'Apology for Raymond Sebond‘ 1568-69 Michel de Montaigne was a French lawyer, diplomat, and creator of the literary form known as the “essay”. His collected writings, the Essay, is a chronological arrangement of 107 chapters on various topics presented in three books. The second book represents the more skeptical phase in his writings, the running theme of which is, “what do I know?” (Que sais-je?). His skeptical approach comes to head in his Apology (first published separately and later included in the Essay), in which he makes specific use of Sextus’ ten modes of skepticism to explain his discontent with reason. The “Apology for Raymond Sebond” was written in his response to Sebond’s attack on fideism, which claimed that religious knowledge can be obtained through faith alone. Sebond claimed that not only the existence of God could be proven to by reason, but rational proofs could be given for all the doctrines of Christianity. This meant that clear thinking would be enough to convince us all that we should be Christians. Montaigne’s strategy is to demonstrate that Sebond’s ‘proofs’ of Christian beliefs are not inferior to reasons