John Vespasian

De: John Vespasian
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  • Resumen

  • JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of sixteen books, including “When everything fails, try this” (2009), “Rationality is the way to happiness” (2009), “The philosophy of builders” (2010), “The 10 principles of rational living” (2012), “Rational living, rational working” (2013), “Consistency: The key to permanent stress relief” (2014), “On becoming unbreakable” (2015), “Thriving in difficult times” (2016), “Causality: Aristotle’s life and ideas” (2024), “Foresight: Schopenhauer’s life and ideas” (2024), and "Constancy: Michel de Montaigne's life and ideas" (2025).
    John Vespasian
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Episodios
  • The hidden message in Michel de Montaigne’s literary legacy

    The hidden message in Michel de Montaigne’s literary legacy
    May 8 2025
    Learning to fish is more valuable than getting a free meal, because the former can feed us for a lifetime. Methods are far more valuable than objects, because objects are finite. Methods are not limited in time. We can simply employ them to arrive at our goals once and again. The essays by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) include an important hidden message: Keep your eyes open and stay alert. Don’t accept things without questioning, especially if they look too good to be true. Look beyond the obvious, especially when people tell you that there are no alternatives. Montaigne’s hidden message is about self-reliance, alertness and method. His essays illustrate his thought patterns and help readers acquire the habit of looking at the whole picture. I find it particularly impressive when Montaigne applied his method to seemingly innocuous subjects. Take for instance Montaigne’s essay “On Names” where he starts with the anodyne remark that some heirs fail to honour their family name. Their ancestors had become famous thanks to their heroic or courageous actions, but the heirs do not care. Would it not make more sense, asked Montaigne, to name individuals after their own deeds. Montaigne points to a Central African tribe called Yoruba, where children are named after something that they have done themselves or after the circumstances surrounding their birth. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/the-hidden-message-in-michel-de-montaignes-literary-legacy/
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    6 m
  • Michel de Montaigne’s biography (5 of 5): joy until the last minute

    Michel de Montaigne’s biography (5 of 5): joy until the last minute
    May 8 2025
    Some people are so afraid of dying that they waste hundreds of hours trying to protect themselves against the normal risks of life. They fear catching the flu, falling from their bicycle, or eating too much meat; as a result, they restrain their lifestyle in the vain hope of living a little bit longer. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), after a long reflection, made the opposite choice. Instead of being paralysed by fear, he remained extremely active. Instead of worrying, he focused on his favourite activities. I admire in particular his decision to travel to Paris after his fifty-fifth birthday, suffering from chronic kidney pain. Even in our century, few individuals at that age keep pushing resolutely to develop their careers, especially something as uncertain as a literary career. In Paris, Montaigne met for the first time his admirer Marie de Gournay, who was twenty-three years old at that time. They hit it off immediately, intellectually, and Montaigne started to refer to Marie as “my adopted daughter.” Montaigne was speaking metaphorically since he never took any steps to adopt Marie, nor had she asked for any adoption. Marie was the daughter of a minor aristocrat, who had passed away when she was twelve, leaving Marie, her sisters and their mother in a precarious financial condition. The relationship between Montaigne and Marie de Gournay lasted three and a half years. I count those years as the happiest in Montaigne’s life. Why? Because, for the first time since the death of his best friend Etienne de La Boetie, Montaigne had met a kindred soul, someone who understood him perfectly and with whom he could converse for hours on end. Note that twenty-five years had elapsed between La Boetie’s death and the first time that Montaigne met Marie de Gournay. When meeting Marie in Paris, Montaigne was taken aback by the resemblance of their conversations (in terms of breadth and depth) with those he had held with La Boetie. Despite their age difference, Montaigne and Marie shared a key personality trait: to a large extent, both were self-educated. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaignes-biography-5-of-5-joy-until-the-last-minute/
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    6 m
  • Michel de Montaigne’s biography (4 of 5): the pinnacle years

    Michel de Montaigne’s biography (4 of 5): the pinnacle years
    May 8 2025
    When things are falling apart and everything seems lost, we might just as well enjoy ourselves. Once we realise that our days are counted, there is little reason for stress. Every day that is left can deliver exhilaration and happiness On his fifty-second birthday, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) must have come to that conclusion. He had already exceeded the average lifespan, which had severely diminished in sixteenth-century France due to the religious wars. Montaigne thought that, if he had a few more years to live, he might as well enjoy every minute. Thus, he decided to focus on the activities he loved, and drop everything else. Strangely enough, most individuals will embrace an enjoy-every-day strategy only after going through intense trauma. It’s a fact that most people will only grasp their own mortality after seeing the writing on the wall. Montaigne returned to his countryside estate when his four- year term as mayor of Bordeaux had come to the end. He was through with politics for the rest of his life. Despite his efforts and best intentions, he had achieved nothing of practical value. Instead of embracing toleration, Catholics and Protestants in France had only grown to hate each other more intensely. The war had turned into ruthless savagery. Montaigne’s attempts to put his philosophy into practice had failed all the way. Montaigne was however not crushed by his ineffectiveness. He knew enough of history to realise how hard it is to modify a harmful ideology. When disastrous ideas are set in motion, it can take a long time before the trend is broken. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaignes-biography-the-pinnacle-years/
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    6 m
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