Video and Podcast Resources On Michel De Montaigne's Essays

16 lectures on this great late Renaissance philosopher

One writer whose thought I have come to appreciate more and more over the course of my life, perhaps as my mind matures along with my body, and places me in reflective moods more often, is the 16th century Renaissance author Michel de Montaigne. The work we know him for is his voluminous Essays, which is divided into three main books, encompassing a wide range of pieces on various topics.

I don’t usually teach any of those essays in my classes, but I’m toying with the idea of incorporating some of them into a class in the future. So a little while back, I began producing core concept videos on a selection of his essays, focusing on the ones I particularly enjoy rereading and can see myself introducing to students. A bit later on, I converted all of those video lectures into episodes in the Sadler’s Lectures podcast.

There are a number of features of his work and thought that make Montaigne especially congenial to me, so much that, when I did a 10-year-later revisitation video on the topic “10 philosophical works I would bring to a dessert island”, his Essays was one of the books that I decided I would include in that list.

One aspect I have particularly come to appreciate is his willingness to stake out a position in a manner that is both bold at times and moderate at others, without much trace of dogmatism, genuinely concerned to discern as much truth in the matters as is humanly possible. I suppose that another aspect of his work that has grown on me as well is his engagement with other authors whose works I enjoy, for example Plutarch, Cicero, and Seneca, getting to see what another thoughtful reader makes of them.

At this point, I have 16 lectures available in both video and podcast formats that I can offer you to watch, listen to, or download. I do plan to return to the Essays and produce additional lectures on Montaigne’s thought, and when I do so, I will add links to all of them here. I hope that those that I do have finished at present will prove useful for you readers in studying this great, often underrated and overlooked, philosopher’s work.

Standalone Lectures On Particular Essays

• How We Weep And Laugh At The Same Thing | watch video | listen to podcast

• On The Inconstancy Of Our Actions | watch video | listen to podcast

• Same Design, Different Outcomes | watch video | listen to podcast

• On Anger | watch video | listen to podcast

• On Moderation | watch video | listen to podcast

• On Liars | watch video | listen to podcast

• On Cato The Younger | watch video | listen to podcast

• On Three Kinds Of Social Intercourse | watch video | listen to podcast

To Philosophise Is To Learn To Die

• Virtue and Pleasure | watch video | listen to podcast

• Removing Death's Strangeness | watch video | listen to podcast

• Life And Death | watch video | listen to podcast

On Affectionate Relationships

• The Range Of Relationships | watch video | listen to podcast

• Sexual Relationships | watch video | listen to podcast

• Friendships | watch video | listen to podcast

On Habit

• The Power Of Habit Or Custom | watch video | listen to podcast

• Changing Traditional Laws | watch video | listen to podcast

I hope if you haven’t already read some of Montaigne’s essays that perhaps you’ll check them out, and see what interesting and valuable reflections he offers in those works!