Abstract

Montaigne’s last words in the Essays—the words that capture his entire project—are “sociable wisdom.” Philosophy has been transformed from the “love of wisdom” to “sociable wisdom” and this transformation is, at the same time, the transformation of the human world, the production of society, a new mode of human association. What is “sociable wisdom” and how has it produced this remarkable effect?Philosophy means “the love of wisdom.” Although the term is believed to have been used first by Pythagoras, Socrates presents us with the most complete picture of the life of philosophy as the love of wisdom. And Socrates is the ancient philosopher most admired by Montaigne. However, the Socrates of the Essays is..