Montaigne, a descoberta do novo mundo e o ceticismo moderno

Abstract

The Discovery of the New World is one of the central causes of the breakdown with tradition that opens the way to modern thought. The first contact of the Europeans with the native peoples of the New World shows radically different cultures giving rise to doubts about the universality of human nature, what might be called an "anthropological argument" in a skeptic sense. Michel de Montaigne is the major philosopher in this context to discuss these issues in his Essays and I shall examine some of the more relevant aspects of this discussion.