Trying others by Michel de Montaigne

Abstract

The article reconsiders a historical example of thinking about otherness. The example is the
Essays by Michel de Montaigne, a piece of work from the early modern times which undermines
the interpretation of the contemporary times as a modern age, i.e. supposedly more open, less
dogmatic, and less hostile towards strangers. Four figures of otherness are taken into account:
an infidel, a “savage,” a woman, and an animal, proving Montaigne’s particular openness. It turns
out that the Essays induce a contemporary man to revise his sense of historical superiority in
regard to men from the previous centuries; they also let him develop a more just relationship
with others of the present times.