The montaigne’s meditatio mortis: how philosophizing is to learn to live

Abstract

Since Plato, death has been a recurring theme in the history of philosophy and the Hellenistic schools of thought. The "death" subject became a daily reflection particularly in Epicureanism and in Stoicism, from which not only the term meditatio mortis comes from, but an entire literature, including the writings made in the medieval times that had the final moment of life as their central point. Thus, in the 16th century, the period when Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) lived his life, meditation on death was a rhetorical topos. Nevertheless, his Essays approach the theme of death not only from a literary standpoint, but as a daily meditation, as a spiritual exercise. In this perspective, this article suggests that Montaigne, far beyond a rhetorical approach, attempts to recover the most original meaning that the Hellenistic schools of thought gave to meditatio mortis, taking this concept as a preparation for life itself, as a constant way of observing the present, faced with an imminent scenario of various deaths, such as the Black Death epidemic and the civil war in Montaigne troubled times.