What does it mean to do philosophy? We might say that to do philosophy is to do what the philosophers do, whatever that might be. But where does that leave Montaigne, the self-declared ‘accidental philosopher’, and what of the practices of thinking and writing that make up his Essais? In what sense does Montaigne do philosophy and what sort of philosophy might this be?

Montaigne addressed these questions directly at the beginning of ‘Coustume de l’isle de Cea’, a chapter arguing, in contrarian fashion, in defence of suicide: ‘Si philosopher c’est douter, comme ils disent, à plus forte raison niaiser et fantastiquer, comme je fais, doit estre doubter’ [If to philosophise is to doubt, as they say, then to play the fool and fantasticate, as I do, is all the more to doubt] (II.3.350/251).