An ignorant wise man who “unteaches foolishness” At the paradoxical school of Michel de Montaigne’s Essais

The figure of the “ignorant wise man” enables Montaigne to explore his own relationship with knowledge and authority by distinguishing himself from the negative figures of pedants and dogmatists. The relationship of the ignorant Socratic master with his disciple is similar to the relationship that the text of the Essais establishes with its reader. Through the figure of the “ignorant wise man” and the writing of the essay, a philosophical ethos emerges, which participates in the formative power of the work.