Tagged: truth

Machiavelli’s notion of truth

Earlier this week we discussed Machiavelli’s potent shock-value. Now, Arts & Letter Daily has linked us to The New Criterion‘s post on Machiavelli’s philosophical musings of truth. The claim is that they are just as important as his political work. ALDaily writes: “I depart from the orders of others.” With that, Machiavelli reconceived both politics and philosophy. […]

Montaigne: What do I know?

Relating to CC201’s study of Montaigne is an article by Liam Julian of The Weekly Standard, discussing the Essays. Here is an extract: Begun in 1572, the Essays is Montaigne’s 20-year examination of his own life, and not the product of that examination, either, but the examination itself. It contains more than a hundred essays and some […]

Analects of the Core: Descartes on plausible philosophy

Je ne dirai rien de la philosophie, sinon que, voyant qu’elle a été cultivée par les plus excellents esprits qui aient vécu depuis plusieurs siècles, et que néanmoins il ne s’y trouve encore aucune chose dont on ne dispute, et par conséquent qui ne soit douteuse, je n’avois point assez de présomption pour espérer d’y […]