Art and virtue in Montaigne and Diderot

Abstract

Montaigne and Diderot were philosophers, humanists, and defenders of critical skepticism. His writings are characterized by a fluid, private, and comic writing style. In Diderot we see a philosopher playwright, author and critical theatrical. In Montaigne a non-academic philosopher, a magistrate averse to the perfectionism of scholastic philosophy, which instituted a new style of writing. There is a common trait in how they both understand philosophy. For Montaigne and Diderot, ethics and aesthetics are two domains of philosophy that have a close relationship. The work of art is an essential element that has the power to awaken the human spirit and lead it to the experience of true virtue.