{"id":1595,"date":"2007-07-23T06:30:23","date_gmt":"2007-07-23T11:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-cruelty\/"},"modified":"2007-07-23T06:32:03","modified_gmt":"2007-07-23T11:32:03","slug":"monday-morning-montaigne-of-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-cruelty","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of Cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montaigne’s discussion of cruelty begins with a discussion of virtue and ends with a request to treat animals right. He sets out to divide virtue from “being good” by explaining that virtue requires struggle: “[V]irtue presupposes difficulty and contrast, and . . . it cannot be exercised without opposition.” He adds that God is considered many good things, but not virtuous, because “his operations are wholly natural and effortless.”<\/p>\n

Similarly, Socrates has so subsumed human vices that he seems to be beyond virtue: “I know his reason to be so powerful and so much the master in him that it would never so much as let a vicious appetite be born. I can put nothing up against a virtue as lofty as his.” And his chosen death is “beautiful.”<\/p>\n

But for the rest of us, virtue must strain against vice. Except when our ethnic stereotypes come into play:<\/p>\n

An Italian lord once maintained this theme in presence, to the disadvantage of his nation: that the subtlety of the Italians and the liveliness of their imaginations were so great, that they foresaw the dangers and accidents that could happen to them from so far off, that it should not be thought strange if in war they were often seen providing for their security even before having recognized the peril; that we and the Spaniards, who were not so sharp, went further, and had to be made to see the danger with our own eyes and touch it with our hands before taking fright, and that then we too no longer had any control; but that the Germans and Swiss, coarser and heavier, had hardly the sense to reconsider even when they were overwhelmed by blows.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This put me in mind of one of my favorite Orwell passages, from England, Your England<\/a>:<\/p>\n

National characteristics are not easy to pin down, and when pinned down they often turn out to be trivialities or seem to have no connexion with one another. Spaniards are cruel to animals, Italians can do nothing without making a deafening noise, the Chinese are addicted to gambling. Obviously such things don’t matter in themselves. Nevertheless, nothing is causeless, and even the fact that Englishmen have bad teeth can tell something about the realities of English life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He proceeds to decry cruelty in its many states. M. being M., he draws up a laundry list of historical cruelties of capital punishment, focusing as usual on the Romans. He argues that there is nothing so monstrous as murder for its own sake “without enmity, without profit” before turning his attention to the plight of animals. He can’t stand cruelty to animals, but admits that he enjoys a good hunt.<\/p>\n

For his part, M. argues that his reason is much more perverse than any natural inclination he may have toward vice: “[M]y lust [is] less depraved than my reason.” He counters the Cynics’ lesson, “Unlearn evil<\/a>,” by contending that “chance of birth” is responsible for whatever goodness he possesses.<\/p>\n

That sentiment makes this essay curiously worthless. When M. admits that it’s in his nature not to be cruel and to shun most vices (while still embracing minor ones), he seems to discount the impact of learning and modifying one’s own behavior. Or, at least, he’s saying, “That works for some people, but I guess I’m just lucky.”<\/p>\n

Of course, this is the same approach I have toward friends who have told me how important psychotherapy has been in their lives.<\/p>\n

This is the last “regular-sized” essay before the 170-page Apology for Raymond Sebond<\/a>. Not sure how I’ll write about that one, but since you guys don’t read these posts, that shouldn’t concern you too much.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montaigne’s discussion of cruelty begins with a discussion of virtue and ends with a request to treat animals right. He sets out to divide virtue from “being good” by explaining that virtue requires struggle: “[V]irtue presupposes difficulty and contrast, and . . . it cannot be exercised without opposition.” He adds that God is considered … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Monday Morning Montaigne: Of Cruelty”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-montaigne"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-pJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2838,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-virtue","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":0},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of virtue","author":"Gil","date":"November 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm perplexed, dear reader. Of virtue (pp. 646-653) starts with a promising thought \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that it is not in a crisis that we learn who a man is, but through his day-to-day actions \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and somehow evolves into a celebration of assassins. In between, we learn that the ritual suicides\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2569,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-glory","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":1},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of glory","author":"Gil","date":"September 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"At my college graduation, a girl with whom I'd had a fling gave me a hug and then whispered to me, \"You're the most nauseating prick I've ever met.\" I told her, \"Hey! It's a superlative! I'll take it!\" Which brings us to Of glory (pp. 568-81). The opening of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2704,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/montaigne-update","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":2},"title":"Montaigne update","author":"Gil","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hmm. Maybe I should have pushed my Montaigne-as-blogger idea, floated a few weeks ago when I wrote up Of presumption in my Monday Morning Montaigne series. Here's a piece from Andrew Sullivan's article \"Why I Blog\" in the new ish of The Atlantic: But perhaps the quintessential blogger avant la\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1354,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-5","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":3},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne","author":"Gil","date":"February 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorta undermining my whole Montaigne-project, but then bringing it back home, this passage is from On Pedantry: In truth, the care and expense of our fathers aims only at furnishing our heads with knowledge; of judgment and virtue, little news. Exclaim to our people about a passer-by, \"Oh, what a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1456,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-names","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":4},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of Names","author":"Gil","date":"April 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought of writing on Of sumptuary laws this week, because it had a great premise: if you want to get the masses to cease \"vain and insane expenditures for the table and for clothes,\" don't restrict them and make them appropriate only for princes; make them commonplace and watch\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1424,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-cato-the-younger","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":5},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of Cato the Younger","author":"Gil","date":"April 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, yeah, I know: who cares about what Montaigne has to say about Cato the Younger? Well, as usual, M. uses the occasion of a brief (3+ pages) essay on Cato to digress into the nature and impact of poetry. The essay begins with a gorgeous little passage about M.'s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}