After you traverse the landscape, you then join the exclusive club of what I call the “philosophers of multiplicity” - those you named and including Lin yutang, Santayana, Whitehead, Cioran, Deleuze, and poets Pessoa and Stevens. It’s a very special club not yet fully appreciated. 😁
Montaigne is perhaps the best exemplar of beautiful wisdom, for his insights are based on personal experience and prosaic living, not hifalutin a priori speculation deemed Truth revealed and dogmatically asserted. He understood best that ancient aphorism that “perhaps the Truth depends upon a walk around the lake.” He doesn’t climb a mountain to seek the “highest” POV, but meanders along the creek. He is our greatest Sage.
It strikes me that in this regard Thoreau and Montaigne have much in common.
One reason I'm writing six "preludes and fugues" is that I, at least, can get closer to understanding the terrain only by experiencing it from multiple perspectives and by pursuing activities that engage multiple senses. Thus I find that it's worth my while to meander along the creek (Montaigne), swim in the pond (Thoreau), hike up a nearby mountain (Nietzsche), study the plants and animals in the local environment (Aristotle), have a friend over to visit for pleasant conversation (Epicurus), and sometimes just *be* (Pyrrho). I have no doubt that other folks gain their understanding of the human condition in other ways and from other thinkers; although I like to learn from their reports, too, there are only so many paths that I myself can walk in this life...
After you traverse the landscape, you then join the exclusive club of what I call the “philosophers of multiplicity” - those you named and including Lin yutang, Santayana, Whitehead, Cioran, Deleuze, and poets Pessoa and Stevens. It’s a very special club not yet fully appreciated. 😁
Montaigne is perhaps the best exemplar of beautiful wisdom, for his insights are based on personal experience and prosaic living, not hifalutin a priori speculation deemed Truth revealed and dogmatically asserted. He understood best that ancient aphorism that “perhaps the Truth depends upon a walk around the lake.” He doesn’t climb a mountain to seek the “highest” POV, but meanders along the creek. He is our greatest Sage.
Hi Paul!
It strikes me that in this regard Thoreau and Montaigne have much in common.
One reason I'm writing six "preludes and fugues" is that I, at least, can get closer to understanding the terrain only by experiencing it from multiple perspectives and by pursuing activities that engage multiple senses. Thus I find that it's worth my while to meander along the creek (Montaigne), swim in the pond (Thoreau), hike up a nearby mountain (Nietzsche), study the plants and animals in the local environment (Aristotle), have a friend over to visit for pleasant conversation (Epicurus), and sometimes just *be* (Pyrrho). I have no doubt that other folks gain their understanding of the human condition in other ways and from other thinkers; although I like to learn from their reports, too, there are only so many paths that I myself can walk in this life...