The Possible Influence of Montaigne’s ‘Essais’ on Descartes’: Descartes’ ‘Treatise on the Passions

This present study takes a new look at the essayist Michel de Montaigne and the philosopher Rene Descartes and attempts to show a new interrelationship between the two. Previous studies have linked the latter’s Discours de la mEthode to the Essais and have noted general similarities, but no major study to date has examined the pair from the standpoint of Descartes’ TraitE des passions and Montaigne’s Essais.