Montaigne, os canibais e todos os outros do mundo

Montaigne, the cannibals and everyone else in the world

Authors

  • Maria Cristina Theobaldo Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso

Abstract

A significant part of the analysis of the chapter “On the Cannibals”,
Book I of the Essays, properly highlights Montaigne’s unique approach to the
recent contacts of Europeans with Native Americans. We regard Montaigne’s
skeptical perspective as responsible for such a peculiarity, whose ultimate aim is
less about the description of indigenous life and more about the moral reflection
that such a way of life inspires. We emphasize: (1) the polarizations and inversions
between the senses of savage and barbarian and the civilized European - who,
after all, is the barbarian?; (2) how, in the course of these resignifications, we
can seize the relation between nature and artifice; which leads us to (3) the
perception of the cultural diversity and the judgments about them, that is, the
relevance of the chapter “On the Cannibals” to what today is called ethnocentrism.

Keywords : Montaigne; cannibals; moral; cultural diversity.

Published

2021-02-06

How to Cite

Cristina Theobaldo, M. (2021). Montaigne, os canibais e todos os outros do mundo: Montaigne, the cannibals and everyone else in the world. Modernos & Contemporâneos - International Journal of Philosophy [issn 2595-1211], 4(10). Retrieved from https://ojs.ifch.unicamp.br/index.php/modernoscontemporaneos/article/view/4364