THE BRITISH ACADEMY,
established by Royal Charter in 1902, champions and supports the humanities and social sciences. It is an independent, self-governing fellowship of scholars elected for their distinction and achievement.
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Montaigne
This lecture took place on 24 September 2004
Professor Terence Cave, FBA, St John's College, Oxford
Do the Essais belong to philosophy, the history of ideas, or literature? In what ways do they represent the activities of the mind? And in what sense may Montaigne's arresting yet elusive mode of thought be said to be 'early modern'? This lecture will engage with his writing at close range in order to recover from it features of a mental landscape which looks familiar but is not yet our own. It will argue that Montaigne's claim to be ranked as a Master Mind rests primarily on his ability to imagine that world for us and give it linguistic substance.
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