The Humanity of Others

How should we speak of humanism today? To answer this question, Moroccan philosopher Ali Benmakhlouf turns to Montaigne. Through a rich and attentive reading of Montaigne's Essays, Benmakhlouf reminds us why the sixteenth-century author remains relevant today when the need to recognize the "humanity of others"—from the cry of "Black Lives Matter" to the anonymous deaths of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean Sea—is as urgent as ever.

Always alert to his times, Montaigne wrote about the d...