NATANAILTOM DE SANTANA MORADOR

This research explores the political reflections of Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592). Adopting the “contextualist” interpretative approach of the Essays, the démarche embraced by the present investigation considers the debate between the antagonistic currents of Machiavellianism and French anti-Machiavellianism, which profoundly marked the works of the second half of the 16th century in France, the period in which Montaigne's works were written. In this heated context of religious wars and ideological disputes over the reception of the works of Nicolas Machiavelli (1469–1527), questions concerning the foundation of laws and the legitimacy of governments were the order of the day. Under this historical context, the answers produced by the supporters of Machiavellianism and anti-Machiavellianism remain, for Montaigne, below the magnitude of the problems raised. The Machiavellians, mistakenly making the raison d’état the principle of the ruler's action, were accompanied by the anti-Machiavellians, who tried to think of the political from metaphysical categories – God, Nature – as Antiquity had done. Faced with this situation, Montaigne stands out for a political reflection that comes from his own experience as an important figure in public negotiations, when he was a representative of the French crown and later mayor of Bordeaux. He understands that the foundation of laws and civil order cannot be anchored in the arbitrament of the ruler, as the Machiavellians claimed, nor in a foundation external to politics itself, as the anti-Machiavellians defended. The foundation of "the political", therefore, in Montaigne, must be thought of in the field of political practice itself and must refer to it. Our author concludes that the foundation of politics can only come from customs, built on common opinions that crystallize into human beliefs.