For Christians of the world in which Montaigne grew up, the chief purpose of someone’s intellectual life was to secure salvation in the world to come (he was especially critical of Luther).25 Philosophy’s main function, in such a world, as the handmaiden of theology, was likewise ‘the preparation of man for a safe death’.26 Montaigne thought this was nonsense and reversed the proposition, arguing that the purpose of knowledge is to teach men how to live more adequately, more productively, more happily, right here on earth.
