In Montaigne’s essay An Apology for Raymond Sebond, he defends the work and philosophy of Sebond, which he defines as a “bold and courageous” defense of the Christian religion using natural, human reason, meant to counter atheists (Montaigne 491). Objections arose to this work, and the one Montaigne approaches more thoroughly is that Sebond is wrong overall in his defense of faith, and that faith is not necessary in the acquisition of knowledge about worldly matters (Montaigne 500-501). This argument Montaigne counters with numerous claims, but the one in question is this: man has no knowledge to speak of outside of the divine, as we have not been equipped to judge the world around us.
It is worth pointing out that, while Montaigne spends…