montaigne
Montaigne in his Apology for Raymond Sebond begins his exploration into the human capacity for knowledge with this belief that only though God can one achieve true knowledge. God is the only infinite, all seeing, being with divine wisdom. He is not subject to the laws and rules of the human domain, and he exists in a realm outside of human comprehension. God is an unchanging, permanent being, and only from this state can the concept of truth propagate. Montaigne believes that the one tie that binds all truth is this idea of permanence. Montaigne even states, "Truth must be the same everywhere" (xxvi). He insists that the only product of humanity that has withstood the test of time and has not changed since its inception was the Catholic Church. The dogma of the Catholic is categorized as, "What has been held always, everywhere by all". The strength in the Catholic faith comes from its static nature, which provides a source of truth for humanity. Catholic truth is in strict conformity with the existence of God, and knowledge can only come from an almighty source. Montaigne goes on to say that, "No creature ever is: a creature is always shifting, changing, becoming." Man embodies the idea of impermanence. He i
The fact is that we don't know which case is true, but if one begins to question man's relation ship with the animals, it may be hard to discern which plays the role of master. He tells how Chysippus watched the actions of a dog when it came upon three crossroads when trying to catch up to his master. Human reasoning, which creates the concept of knowledge, is in direct confrontation with the qualities of truth. In this book Montaigne shows how again truth is based on opinion alone, and this opinon is swayed by a familiarity one's own culture. Since the building block of human knowledge is this flawed truth, then human knowledge itself is flawed. Like wise a mortal man cannot know everything there is to know about a certain being, or structure or thing. Montaigne then shows the absurdity of this claim by taking a hypothetical situation in which Man is in isolations with not outside help and stripped of the "grace and knowledge of God" those things that are ". After all, it is a man who serves his pet: he washes it, he feeds it, he plays with it, he even takes breaks in his schedule to assist his pet with going to the bathroom. Plato Aristotle, and Sexius Empiricus all conceded the fact that when it comes to the human being, there is no exact standard of truth. However, Montaigne is in strict disagreement with this rational and believes the only the inese sense of vanity displayed by all humanity separates men from the rest of the animals. This story is just one of many that displays the innate and associative reasoning skills of animals, which though rarely observed, destroys the exceptional nature of the human mind. He states, "After all, what aspects of our human competence cannot be found in the activities of animals" (Montaigne 19). With out the true knowledge the God bestows upon man, he cannot found or erect any such rational as to why he is different than his fellow animals.
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Acceptance Essays
