Montaigne on the Uncertainty of Our Judgment
You have probably experienced it: you feel absolutely certain about something, only for someone to offer a different perspective that makes the ground beneath your feet feel suddenly less solid. That moment of wavering certainty is exactly the territory Michel de Montaigne explores in his essay ‘On the Uncertainty of Our Judgment.’ It is a text that invites you to confront an uncomfortable question — one that resonates deeply with anyone on the Masonic path of self-improvement: how reliable is what you think you know? What Is This Essay About? In the forty-seventh essay of the first book of his celebrated Essais, Michel de Montaigne investigates a theme that occupied him throughout his entire writing life: the fallibility of human judgment. He argues that we, as human beings, rush to conclusions far too quickly, while reality is almost always more complex than our first impressions suggest. In this particular essay, Montaigne focuses primarily on decisions made in times of conflict and war, but his message reaches far beyond the battlefield. Whether it concerns military strategy, a personal choice, or a moral dilemma, our ability to predict the outcome of events is fundamentally limited. The Battlefield as a Mirror of Our […]