Mankind's Natural Lust For Cruelty Cause Montaigne example essay topic

One of the dominating concerns of Montaigne throughout all his essays is the use of cruelty. He critiques cruelty in an effort to dismantle its power and make others re-evaluate its place in society. Before his critique of cruelty, people generally did not view it with such disgust. Cruelty seemed commonplace during unstable political times. Traditional views of virtue and vice cause mankind to act cruel to one another. He rejects these old views of virtue because religion uses them as a tool to maintain power over the people.

Mankind's natural lust for cruelty cause Montaigne to believe that human nature is inherently cruel. Because of his fear of pain, he strongly rejects the use of cruelty and condemns it. His main objection to authority stems from his concern that it is used to control people's thoughts. Torture, which is used as a tool for cruelty, is pointless in Montaigne's eyes. Finally, In order to protect oneself against cruelty, he advises that humans follow reason rather than the authority of the church. Because the church underrates Montaigne's philosophy that self-preservation is the highest goal, he must defeat this force.

By criticizing cruelty, Montaigne can successfully devalue the authority of religion and support hi philosophy. His philosophy forces the reader to reject the authority of the church, and instead, focus attention on reasoning through nature. Montaigne addresses the traditional views of virtue and vices and proves that the rejection of pleasure leads to cruelty. Traditional thinkers such as the stoics accepted virtue as the highest good of human life and identified it closely with happiness. They also believed that people could only attain true freedom over their lives by putting aside self-indulgences, passions and unjust thoughts. Because stoicism is closely assimilated with Christian thought Montaigne is also directly attacking the Christian church and its authority.

He takes a very stoic stance when he defines virtue in terms that, "Virtue presupposes difficulty and opposition, and cannot be exercised without a struggle", (169). He presents virtue as a difficult trait that must be earned. But the rejection of all pleasurable things is not necessarily virtuous, and not all vices are actually evil. It is this rejection of pleasure that makes humans unhappy and willing to inflict cruelty on others.

For Montaigne, his definition is that, "Virtue makes herself known by fighting pain and bearing it patiently, but sustaining attacks from the gout without being shaken in her seat", (171). He reverses the idea of virtue because there are many human pleasures that are hard to attain. Their difficulty to acquire makes them virtuous by his definition of virtue. Montaigne rejects religious views of virtue, because they present it as a domineering force that inflicts fear on the people. People are afraid of the repercussions of merely indulging in the human pleasures that define humanity.

His problem with stoicism and Christianity is that they turn virtue into a rejection of both good and evil human pleasures. He contrasts his opinion of virtue with that of the stoics when he says, "This highest virtue is fair, triumphant, loving, as delightful as she is courageous, a professed and implacable foe to bitterness, unhappiness, fear and constraint, having Nature for guide, Fortune and Pleasure for her companions: those who frequent her have, after their won weakness, fashioned an absurd portrait of her, sad, shrill, sullen, threatening and glowering, perching her on a rocky peak, all on her won among the brambles- a spectre to terrify people", (55). Traditional views hang virtue above the heads of mortals and forces them to behave the dominant authority. This compliance is not natural, and is created from a myth in Montaigne's eyes. He does not like or accept the power of the church and is fearful of its authority, and by pointing out their misconceptions, he undermines their teachings of virtue.

Doing this allows humans the freedom to follow nature as a guiding force. Montaigne portrays a negative view of human nature when he discusses mankind's natural inclination towards vices such as cruelty. He wonders, "Is there anyone who, in the joys of the hunt, does not forget the ills which love's care brings?" (179). Perhaps people get so caught up in the pleasure of their actions that they forget the pain and suffering that they cause to others. It is the answer to this question that separates the brutality of beast from the humanity of mankind.

If man feels no remorse from inflicting pain on another person, than that particular part of human nature is dark and needs to be controlled. He admits that, "I fear that Nature herself has attached to man something which goads him on towards inhumanity", (182). Among the things that man finds pleasurable are sex, hunting, and cruelty. While some vices he reverses to be virtues, such as lying with women and drunkenness, he maintains that cruelty is a pleasurable vice that must be controlled. He goes further to say, "If I had not seen it I could hardly have made myself believe that you could find someone so monstrous that they would commit murder for the sheer fun of it; would... invent unusual tortures and new forms of murder, not from hatred or for gain but for the one sole purpose of enjoying... a man dying in agony", (181). His description proves that man does in fact derive pleasure from cruelty, and that this vice must be stopped.

Of all the vices, cruelty should be the one that religion combats the most. Montaigne hopes to show this by claiming that sex and drunkenness does not harm others whereas cruelty does. He challenges the values of the church and brings to light the necessity for the church to re-evaluate their priorities. He establishes a new set or morals when he reveals this over-looked human shortcoming. The only thing that Montaigne fears more than death is pain.

Because of this, he adamantly rejects the use of cruelty on any man or beast. Cruelty is one vice that is unforgivable to Montaigne, and he maintains that, "Among the vices, both by nature and judgment I have a cruel hatred of cruelty, as the ultimate vice of them all", (178). Once again, he criticizes Christianity because they view many good pleasures that are natural to humans as vices. He claims that, "Some vices I follow: others I flee as much as any saint could do", (177). But for Montaigne, cruelty is the only pleasure indicative of mankind that is evil. He condemns the use of cruelty, and asserts, "To return to my subject, I feel a most tender compassion for the afflictions of others and would readily weep from fellow-feeling-if, that is, I knew how to weep at anything at all", (179).

He tells a story of a soldier in prison who tries to commit suicide once he realizes that he will be tortured before he dies. After his failed attempt, the soldier is sentenced to death. This comes as a relief to the soldier because he will not have to experience pain (180). It is this same philosophy that Montaigne aligns himself with because it is against the desires of human nature to suffer. If self-preservation is the ruling force behind mankind, then cruelty is the ultimate vice that must be stopped. Even though it seems that Montaigne's story of the soldier contradicts his philosophy on self-preservation, he maintains that in the very least, when death is inevitable humans want to avoid a painful death.

Montaigne objects to any authority that controls people's thoughts. Authority, such as religion, prevents the people from seeing the world the way it really is. They do this through the practice of superstitions and reinforcing their values in myths. Montaigne hopes to change the way children are educated. Part of the importance of educating is so that pupils will use reason and logic to think instead of blindly following authority. He attempts to break down the institutions that use authority because, "Our souls are moved only at second-hand, being shackled and constrained to what is desired by someone else's ideas; they are captives enslaved to the authority of what they have been taught.

We have been so subjected to leading-reins that we take no free steps on our own", (44). Institutions such as education and religion create conformists who are all taught to share common beliefs about morality. He is most fearful of authority that in the name of God justifies their use of cruelty. During the Spanish inquisition, which occurred during the thirteenth century, the church used the name of God to inflict torture on any person who did not comply with the church. During Montaigne's lifetime, the same intolerance was shown with the Roman inquisition. He fears the authority of the church because of its power over the minds of so many people.

He makes an argument for a new kind of education so that mankind will be armed against forces that control the masses. Montaigne demonstrates the pointlessness of torture so that he can encourage to end of cruelty. He says that punishing anybody beyond the death penalty is a clear display of cruelty. He is especially critical of authority members who use torture to evoke truth from their victims. The result is that, "Torture is a dangerous innovation; it would appear that it is an assay not of the truth but of a man's endurance", (146). He goes on to state that many times victims will admit to lies in order to stop their suffering of torture.

Because the act of torture is pointless in the sense that it accomplishes little to nothing, he hopes to eliminate the act all together. Instead of torture, Montaigne proposes that wounds be inflicted upon the corpses on the victims rather than the living victims themselves. He specifically states that, "My advice would be that exemplary severity intended to keep the populace to their duty should be practiced not on criminals but on their corpses", (180). He intends to show that the same message can be sent even though the state is not inflicting pain on an individual. The reality is that the corpse feels nothing, but the public still reacts in much the same way. The reader is supposed to react to the absurdity of inflicting wounds on a corpse.

Montaigne's solution is sardonic because it illuminates the fact that the act of cruelty itself is just as absurd. Perhaps this realization will change the barbaric nature of cruelty. Montaigne advices those who do not wish to blindly follow the logic of the church to use their ability to reason instead. Mankind can do this because, "Truth and reason are common to all; they no more belong to the man who first put them into words than to him who last did so", (44). Religion asks mankind to be more than human by rejecting the natural pleasures that we should be indulging in. Because the church's views of virtues and vices are skewed, he argues for the satisfaction of those pleasures that do not harm others.

Through reason, humans can see that the denial of the good pleasures makes them unhappy and causes the problem of cruelty. The acceptance of the nature of man is the first step towards dismantling the power of the church. If he can encourage people to break the bonds that tie people to the negative aspects of religion, then he can give them free will. Following natural logic takes power from the church and directly instills it in man. Montaigne addresses a new concept not widely accepted during his time. Cruelty was not seen as wrong, and was used in the political and religious sphere.

But he proves that because self-preservation is man's ultimate desire, the acceptance of cruelty contradicts human nature. He argues against traditional views of virtues because they are misleading and are used to hold power over the people. Despite his negative opinion of mankind, the lust for cruelty can be thwarted through logic and reasoning. In mankind's pursuit to avoid a painful death, he feels that logic will end he use of cruelty. His critique on cruelty questions the power of the church, and reveals a new set of moral standards that will benefit man's goal of self-preservation.