Reply #3: No. It was a response to a book that advocated natural theology. [View All]

Sebond argued that man could understand God through study of the natural world. Montaigne who at this time of his life embraced a radical skepticism argued against Sebond's position. Montaigne believed that there were serious limits on man's ability to reason.


Montaigne thinking changed over time to a point where he questioned all the convictions of his time. He came to believe that self-knowledge was the only certainty which man can rely upon. "For though we can become learned through another man's knowledge we can never be wise except by our own wisdom."


{b]“Montaigne helps us answer this one question: ‘How to stay free? How to preserve our inborn clear-mindedness in front of all the threats and dangers fanaticismism, how to preserve the humanity of our hearts among the upsurge of bestiality?’”

http://www.shef.ac.uk/~ptpdlp/essays/eberts2.html