Quotation
Last reviewed:
“What do I know?”
Michel de Montaigne · Renaissance humanism · Renaissance · 1580 and after
What does it mean?
The question is a habit of withholding rash assent, not a claim to know that nothing can be known, and it refuses the swagger of people who never notice their own ignorance. A rival reading hears a total scepticism that would make every commitment a sham, yet he remained a man of duties, law, and affection, and the question sits beside those commitments rather than cancelling them. The motto belongs to the sceptical strand of the Essays, especially the Apology for Raymond Sebond. Screech's English is a standard way into that strand of the French.
Did Michel de Montaigne really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The French motto is his, tied to the sceptical strand of the Essays and especially to the Apology for Raymond Sebond. It is a question he adopts, not a proverb pinned on him later. Screech's translation is the English this library uses as its guide to the Essays. Donald Frame is the other standard modern English.
Where it comes from
The Essays; his motto, Que sais-je?
Approximate date: 1580 and after.
How to use it
After a sharp opinion in a parents' group chat about a new behaviour policy, the question belongs at the end of the message as a check rather than as a pose. If nothing in the opinion moves, the opinion was never looking, even though the group will still need a view by morning. He thinks a view held with that question attached is different from a view that cannot survive being asked.
A mindset reading
Scepticism of this domestic kind is a style of judgement, and it can live with commitment, which is what disappears when the motto is treated as a refusal to care. He is not recommending paralysis in front of a decision that has a deadline. He is recommending that certainty advertise its grounds, including in matters where one must still act.
Understand the philosophy
The Essays use ancient scepticism, especially the Pyrrhonian suspension associated with Sextus, as a tool against dogmatic certainty. The key term is the motto-question itself, a question rather than a doctrine of ignorance. His distrust of cruelty and his limited defence of tolerance grow in that soil. Screech, and Donald Frame in another English, both keep the French question as a question.
- knowledge
- self
FAQ
What does it mean?
The question is a habit of withholding rash assent, not a claim to know that nothing can be known, and it refuses the swagger of people who never notice their own ignorance. A rival reading hears a total scepticism that would make every commitment a sham, yet he remained a man of duties, law, and affection, and the question sits beside those commitments rather than cancelling them. The motto belongs to the sceptical strand of the Essays, especially the Apology for Raymond Sebond. Screech's English is a standard way into that strand of the French.
Did Michel de Montaigne really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The French motto is his, tied to the sceptical strand of the Essays and especially to the Apology for Raymond Sebond. It is a question he adopts, not a proverb pinned on him later. Screech's translation is the English this library uses as its guide to the Essays. Donald Frame is the other standard modern English.
Which work is it in?
The Essays; his motto, Que sais-je? Approximate date: 1580 and after.