The Literary and Hermeneutic Skepticism in Michel de Montaigne

Abstract

This article examines Michel de Montaigne’s work through the lens of hermeneutic skepticism, understood not as a denial of knowledge but as a way of life grounded in finitude, partiality, and the provisional nature of meaning. Through an analysis of the Essays, it shows how Montaigne transforms doubt into a vital and literary practice, integrating body, experience, and language within a single interpretive gesture. The study explores how Montaigne reworks the skeptical legacy of Pyrrho and Sextus Empiricus, as well as the influences of Socrates and Saint Augustine, to shape a moderate attitude that avoids both dogmatism and nihilism. From this perspective, Montaigne emerges as the first modern writer to turn literature into a philosophical experience and to anticipate a hermeneutics of existence