SOURCE: Jordan, Constance. “Law and Political Reference in Montaigne's ‘Apologie de Raimond Sebond.’” Rhetoric and Law in Early Modern Europe, edited by Victoria Kahn and Lorna Hutson, pp. 199-219. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

In the following essay, Jordan discusses Montaigne's rejection of both divine and natural law and the implications of that rejection for the possibility of social and political change.

An ancient [philosopher] who was reproached for professing philosophy, of which nevertheless in his own mind he took no great account, replied that this was being a true philosopher. They wanted to consider everything, to weigh everything, and they found that occupation suited to the natural curiosity that is in us. Some things they wrote for the needs of the society, like their religions; and on that account it was reasonable that they did not want to bare popular opinions to the skin, so as not...