Michel de Montaigne on the Challenges of Learning and Knowing

In forming our own understanding of the world, we turn to the knowledge that already exists about it: produced by generations bygone and to be produced by generations to come. Wading through the sheer volume of analyses, interpretations and opinions requires, as Crates said of the writings of Heraclitus: 

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A reader who could swim well

The depth and weight of the task of learning cannot not overwhelm and stifle the individual in their pursuit of knowing.

To add to the burden of this task, there is the matter of being able to understand the truth about our world when it has already been interpreted and analyzed countless times. 

How can we truly know what is true when the world and our lives have already been interpreted and analyzed countless times? 

Michel de Montaigne, seeing his time as one of misrepresentation, corruption, and a disconnect between truth and understanding, attempts an exploration of this very specific line of questioning in his essay Of Experience. He doubted whether humanity’s pursuit of knowledge could ever truly uncover the truth, instead believing it often fractured truth into countless pieces. Montaigne writes:

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As you see children trying to bring a mass of quicksilver to a certain number of parts, the more they press and work it and try to reduce it to their own will, the more they irritate the liberty of this generous metal; it evades their attempt and splinters into so many separate pieces that they fail to control it. It’s the same here. In breaking down these subtleties, we only teach people to increase their doubts; we set them on a path that multiplies difficulties, extending and scattering them. By asking more questions, we make the world fertile with uncertainty and disputes, just as the earth is made fertile by being broken up and dug deep.

The pursuit of knowledge, rather than clarifying our understanding, adds complexity, uncertainty, and confusion to the world. Breaking down knowledge, analyzing and subdividing it into smaller pieces leads to more questions and doubts instead of clearer answers, and here Montaigne quotes Quintilian: 

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Learning begets difficulty

Instead of a disdain for the pursuit of knowledge, Montaigne celebrates the difficulty and breakdowns that come with learning and knowing. He acknowledges that scholars will always seek further understanding, and that this continual search is an intrinsic part of intellectual life. Considering that true intellectual curiosity means not being satisfied with existing answers, but constantly pushing forward, he adds: 

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Tis nothing but particular weakness that makes us content with what others or ourselves have found out in this chase after knowledge: one of better understanding will not rest so content; there is always room for one to follow, nay, even for ourselves; and another road; there is no end of our inquisitions; our end is in the other world. 'Tis a sign either that the mind has grown shortsighted when it is satisfied, or that it has got weary. No generous mind can stop in itself; it will still tend further and beyond its power; it has sallies beyond its effects; if it do not advance and press forward, and retire, and rush and wheel about, 'tis but half alive; its pursuits are without bound or method; its aliment is admiration, the chase, ambiguity, which Apollo sufficiently declared in always speaking to us in a double, obscure, and oblique sense: not feeding, but amusing and puzzling us.

There is always more to learn, and no final answer can ever fully satisfy the curious mind. Knowledge, for Montaigne, is a continuous pursuit whereby the very struggle to understand remains essential to intellectual life. The mind must always move forward - constantly seeking and wondering, even in the face of ambiguity. 

However, Montaigne also cautions that an overabundance of intellectual analysis, detached from the real world, risks overcomplicating rather than clarifying our understanding. He warns that we are at risk of being lost in a cycle of endless commentary, where intellectual efforts become disconnected from the real world:

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There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret things, and more books upon books than upon any other subject; we do nothing but comment upon one another. Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity.

While knowledge must evolve through dialogue and interpretation, Montaigne cautions that too much intellectual commentary, especially without returning to the real world for direct engagement, risks leaving us distant from the truths we seek. It’s a warning against getting lost in theoretical abstractions that do not engage with lived experience.  

While knowledge must evolve through dialogue and interpretation, Montaigne cautions that too much intellectual commentary, especially without returning to the real world for direct engagement, risks leaving us distant from the truths we seek. It’s a warning against getting lost in theoretical abstractions that do not engage with lived experience.  

In a world of endless information and analysis, Montaigne’s teachings serves as a timeless reminder that the pursuit of knowledge does not only depend upon its breakdown but also requires a return to the direct engagement with the real world.