This document discusses the life and work of philosopher Michel de Montaigne. It notes that Montaigne agreed with Solon that no one can be judged happy until they have died. The document also suggests what Montaigne may have said to himself on his deathbed, reflecting on his life experiences which included being brought up strictly by his father, the death of his close friend at a young age, isolation in a tower for 10 years, and suffering from severe pain in his later life due to kidney stones.

1. What matters to you and I?
• Digby Tantam
• New School of
Psychotherapy and
Counselling

2. Croesus and Solon

3. Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592, agreed with Solon that no-one could
be judged to have been happy until they had died.
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"That such a man wrote has truly
augmented the joy of living on this
Earth” Untimely Meditations,
Chapter 3, "Schopenhauer as
Educator," Cambridge University
Press, 1988, p. 135

4. What would Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592, have said to himself on
his deathbed?
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An authoritarian
father who
brought him up
by system
Insisted on him
being fostered
with farmers for
the first 3 years
of his life
Closest to his
friend, Étienne de
la Boétie, who
died, aged 32,
when Montaigne
was 33
Spent ten years
isolated in this tower
Forced into
marriage. Had
6 daughters of
whom 5 died in
childhood End of his life in
regular severe
pain because of
kidney stones

5. Psychobiography

6. The youngest Sartre: phenomenology of biography
Son of Jean-Baptiste
(a naval officer, who
died when J.-P. was
1) and Anne-Marie
(Schweitzer) Sartre;
Never married, but
life long companion
of Simone de
Beauvoir
Children: Arlette el
Kaim-Sartre
(adopted).
Born June 21, 1905,
in Thiviers,
Aquitaine.
Inaugural
existential

7. Poulou as a boy: falling from grace
Bullied at school, and
few friends
Mother remarried when
he was 12 to an engineer
and the family moved to
La Rochelle where his
step father had been put
in charge of the
dockyard.
Untreated squint
when his hair was cut
ugliness was disclosed
Poor school results but
then average
Ecole Normale
Superieure (ENS—think
of en soi), agrege de
philosophie, 1929 failed,
1930 (1st. place, Simone
de Beauvoir second)
Inaugural
existential

8. Sartre in his 30s
Called up to Meteorological Corps,
1929-31;
Lycee teacher in le Havre, and Paris.
1933-4
Fellowship to study in Berlin (
Conscripted to French Army, 1939-
40;
Prisoner of war in France then
Germany (Trier) for nine months
(friendly guard gave him Heidegger
to read), 1940-41. Some relationship
to Resistance Movement, 1941-44,
wrote for its underground
newspapers, Combat and Les
Lettres Francaises, but also had
plays performed publicly in Paris with
consent of German occupying forces.Inaugural
existential

9. Sartre the celebrity
Memberships:
American Academy of
Arts and Sciences,
Modern Language
Association of
America (honorary
fellow. Lived in hotels
or with his mother for
most of adult life.
Awarded Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1964
but refused to attend
ceremony.
Also refused to be
Academicien .
Inaugural
existential

10. The intellectual as activist
Became strongly Marxist post-war
and broke with Camus over the
ethics of violence. Partisan of
many minority causes, and moved
from Russian communist support to
Maoism
Inaugural
existential

11. The ageing Sartre
Wrote last books under influence
of amphetamine and other drugs,
and heavy alcohol use.
Relied more on Simone de
Beauvoir usually sleeping at her
flat but going to his own flat
during the day.
Sight in left eye deteriorated. Died
April 15, 1980, of a lung ailment,
in Paris, before completion of
several magna opera.
Inaugural
existential

12. Being in him/her/it-self
• “The error (of psychologists) consists in confusing the
essential structure of reflective acts with the essential
structure of unreflected acts. It is overlooked that two forms
of existence are always possible for consciousness. Then,
each time the observed consciousnesses are given as
unreflected, one superimposes on them a structure,
belonging to reflection, which one doggedly alleges to be
unconscious”. Being and Nothingness
Inaug
ural

13. Ontology
• Being in itself
• Being for others
• Being for itself

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Eudaimonia
• Right action (arete/skill)
i.e. actions that hit the
target (typically the mean
between two extremes)
• Phronesis or practical
reason that enables us to
achieve them

15. Etre pour autrui

16. Determines us/ etre en soi/ focus on our equipment

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Liberating oneself from the past
• Working through, coming
to terms with, forgiving,
forgetting, pitying,leaving it
to God
• Railing against fate,
regretting, pining,
hankering, longing,
wishing, waiting for
justice, waiting for
recognition, ruminating,
hoping for vengeance

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Justice Punishing Injustice Called Madame Adelaide As Justice Greeting
Card by Jean-Marc Nattier

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• Correcting
• Putting things right
• Witnessing
• Regaining reputation
• Punishing the unjust
• Betting understanding
• Morbid fascination
• Paranoia litigans
• Litigious complainant
• Chronic complainer
• Bore
• Whitterer
• A loss of faith in the world

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• Morbid nostalgia
• PTSD
• Hypochondriasis
• Shame proneness
• ?

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• Morbid nostalgia
• PTSD
• Hypochondriasis
• Shame prone