Montaigne’s unconventional view on Law and Medicine
Montaigne’s work is a personal investigation of himself. He is skeptic not only of himself but on what we can gain from reflection. His skepticism and search for truth causes him to reject commonly accepted things such as law and medicine. He believes we should reason and experience according to nature because it reveals the likeness, however, it can mislead us because it also reveals the unlikeness. He touches on the two topics of law and medicine because he believes that within both it is best to allow nature to run its course. Ideally, Montaigne would like to humanize law so that in a court, cases are based on equity rather than equality. He suggest that “Where would be the danger if the wisest men among us were to decide our cases for us according to the details which they have seen with their own eyes, without being bound by case-law or by established precedent?” (Montaigne, pg. 366). By this he means that true laws come from nature and trying to create unanimous laws is not only impossible but pointless. Law represents the mind and soul and each individual should be judged in accordance. If all were judged based on their actions and specific reasoning for them, everything would be …show more content…
He teaches that medicine limits life and the pleasures of the body. He says “We must learn to suffer whatever we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of discords as well as of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only some of them, what could he sing? He has got to know how to use all of them and blend them together. So too must we with good and ill, which are of one substance with our life.” (Montaigne, pg. 394). Illness is something that is unavoidable and therefore it is in our best interest to make peace with the pain and discomfort that it
Montaigne’s work is a personal investigation of himself. He is skeptic not only of himself but on what we can gain from reflection. His skepticism and search for truth causes him to reject commonly accepted things such as law and medicine. He believes we should reason and experience according to nature because it reveals the likeness, however, it can mislead us because it also reveals the unlikeness. He touches on the two topics of law and medicine because he believes that within both it is best to allow nature to run its course. Ideally, Montaigne would like to humanize law so that in a court, cases are based on equity rather than equality. He suggest that “Where would be the danger if the wisest men among us were to decide our cases for us according to the details which they have seen with their own eyes, without being bound by case-law or by established precedent?” (Montaigne, pg. 366). By this he means that true laws come from nature and trying to create unanimous laws is not only impossible but pointless. Law represents the mind and soul and each individual should be judged in accordance. If all were judged based on their actions and specific reasoning for them, everything would be …show more content…
He teaches that medicine limits life and the pleasures of the body. He says “We must learn to suffer whatever we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of discords as well as of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only some of them, what could he sing? He has got to know how to use all of them and blend them together. So too must we with good and ill, which are of one substance with our life.” (Montaigne, pg. 394). Illness is something that is unavoidable and therefore it is in our best interest to make peace with the pain and discomfort that it