History of Ideas: Montaigne
Past Present Future
00:00
The Importance of Luck in Politics
Montaigne's view is that to do politics in this way is to do something. If you show yourself to be a really great Mayor of Bordeaux, you will be drawn up to the next level and there will come a point where it's impossible to avoid high court politics. So much of Montaigne's preoccupation with luck was with physical luck, the lack of good health,. particularly then when death was always just around the corner. He knew you couldn't read anything more into that than chance. You have to be alive to all of the ways in which the choices that you make are going to be shaped by things that you cannot control.
Transcript
Play full episode
