page_title: Philosophical skepticism
section_title: Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
hierarchical_section_title: Philosophical skepticism / History of Western skepticism / Skepticism's revival in the sixteenth century / Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
context_page_description: Philosophical skepticism is a family of philosophical views that question the possibility of knowledge or certainty. Philosophical skeptics are often classified into two general categories: Those who deny of possibility of all knowledge, and those who advocate for the suspension of judgement due to the inadequacy of evidence. This is modeled after the differences between the Academic skeptics and the Pyrrhonian skeptics in ancient Greek philosophy.
context_section_description: The most notable figure of the Skepticism revival in the 1500s, Michel de Montaigne wrote about his studies of Academic Skepticism and Pyrrhonism through his Essais.
  His most notable writings on skepticism occurred in an essay written mostly in 1575–1576, "Apologie de Raimond Sebond," when he was reading Sextus Empiricus and trying to translate Raimond Sebond's writing, including his proof of Christianity's natural existence. The reception to Montaigne's translations included some criticisms of Sebond's proof. Montaigne responded to some of them in Apologie, including a defense for Sebond's logic that is skeptical in nature and similar to Pyrrhonism. His refutation is as follows:
  Critics claiming Sebond's arguments are weak show how egoistic humans believe that their logic is superior to others’.
  Many animals can be observed to be superior to humans in certain respects. To argue this point, Montaigne even writes about dogs who are logical and creates their own syllogisms to understand the world around them. This was an example used in Sextus Empiricus.
  Since animals also have rationality, the over-glorification of man's mental capabilities is a trap—man's folly. One man's reason cannot be assuredly better than another's as a result.
  Ignorance is even recommended by religion so that an individual can reach faith through obediently following divine instructions to learn, not by one's logic.
caption: Michel de Montaigne
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