What is montaigne’s view of human nature versus modern civilization? how does he use the concepts of barbarism, wildness, and blindness to make his view clear? your answer should be at least 250 words

With regards to human nature versus Modern civilization, Montaigne remains highly skeptical about the capacity of civilization to correct or mitigate the worst aspect of human nature. In accordance to such outlook he considers that only a very healthy and prudent skepticism can allow humans to make the right choices about everything. Because he is skeptical about the actual human capacity to find out what the truth is, let alone understand it he considers that a measure of emotional detachment is necessary in order to understand reality. This incapacity of humans to actually find the truth is associated with the philosophical blindness of humans. In this he is verily a man if his time, the Renaissance, during which Greek and Latin Classical Culture was rediscovered in Europe. The Myth of Plato’s Cavern is directly linked to his reasoning on human blindness. The fact that he opposed European colonization of the America’s is directly related to the opposition between wildness and barbarism: since American natives were considered as “wild” by European colonizers in so much as they lacked the technological advances of the latter and engaged in some barbaric customs such as human sacrifices, the European colonists engaged in barbaric practices that caused great suffering. This due to the fact that Europeans sought to colonize and civilize these “wild savages” with methods that many times were as barbaric as the practices they striving to root out.

umm there is no difference

great question btw!