ABSTRACT
The Montaigne text is the only thing that we have to turn to. Reading Montaigne is made ten times more difficult since he himself knows - far more so than most literary artists - that we have to ‘hear’ the text, to ‘sing’ the text and to ‘musicalize’ the text. Saint Augustine used his own mind to establish the primacy of religious experience, Montaigne starts with the moi no longer placed in a framework of accepted knowledge. The role of introspection in both authors is vital, and the Montaigne passage lays stress on this from the beginning to the end. Montaigne is pulverizing the effects of philosophy by pitting it against nature and humanity. Montaigne’s pleasures are ‘intellectuellement sensibles, sensiblement intellectuels’.
