Montaigne’s Plants in Movement

Abstract

By zooming in on the diverse sources of Montaigne’s naturalism, from Aristotelian notions of vegetal psyche to Epicurean atomism and everyday observation, the essay examines the figures of plants in Michel de Montaigne’s Essays. It reveals the remarkable animation that characterizes Montaigne’s plants and argues that the essayist viewed not only animals (as has already been argued) but also plants are analogous to human beings and as forming the basis for moral judgments.