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Authors: Akira Mizubayashi
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as a hairâs breadth between our bodies, I felt an indestructible bond of attachment between us. Descartes and Malebranche would have taken me for an untutored and happy fool. Rousseau would doubtless have understood me. But the one who would have agreed with me completely is Montaigne.
The age of classicism, with Descartes, saw the advent of a âmetaphysical and technical humanismâ that made man a domineering sovereign exercising his power over the physical world as it was laid out before him. As for Rousseau, as Iâve said, he rejected the Cartesian doctrine of the animal- machine, but he appears at the same time asone of the founders of modern humanism in that he emphasises the fundamental superiority of man as a free agent capable of extracting himself from the determinism of the natural world, while animals are condemned to submit to the rules imposed by nature. Perfectible (this is one of the key words of the
Second Discourse
), man becomes the agent of his own history individually as well as collectively, whereas animals do no more than repeat the same behaviours and thereby are unaware of progress, for good or ill.
Montaigne invites us into another world of thought and sensibility. With Montaigne, we are gently soothed by a feeling of reconciliation between mankind and animals. Mankind has not yet been torn from the community of living things. Chapter XII of the second book of the
Essays
, âApology for Raymond Sebondâ, teems with examples, each one as extraordinary as the next and often taken from ancient authors like Plutarch. This is one that I especially like because behind the image of the two dogsâthat of King Lysimachus and that of âone named PyrrhusââI see that of Mélodie, so friendly and faithful and full of gratitude . . .
As for friendship they (the beasts) have it, without comparison, more vital and more constant than men do. Hyrcanus, the dog of King Lysimachus, his master dead, remained obstinately on his bed refusing to eat or drink; and, the day that they burned his body, he ran and jumped into the fire, where he was burned. As too did the dog of one named Pyrrhus, as he did not move from the bed of his master after he died, and when he was taken away, he let himself be removed as well, and finally threw himself on to the pyre on which his masterâs body was burning. There are certain inclinations of affection that sometimes arise in us without thecounsel of reason, which come from a chance temerity that others call sympathy: like us the beasts are capable of it.
To read Montaigne, even though it requires some effort to tackle his writing because of its language, which predates the radical break brought about by the rationality of classicism, is like finding a magical balm that soothes the numberless ills inflicted on the animals that are forgotten, left, neglected, abandoned, eliminated, killed, slaughtered massively and industrially, here, there and everywhere, the world over. The French language, which I have embraced and made my own over a long apprenticeship, has come out of the age of Descartes. In a sense it carries within it the trace of this fundamental divide from which it becomes possible to assign the non-human living things to the category of machines to exploit. It is sad to note that my habitual post-Cartesian language somewhat clouds my vision when I contemplate Montaigneâs animal world: so abundant, so generous, so benevolent.
15
PUNISHMENTS
THE DAILY WALK constitutes a vital activity for a dog. It is a form of exercise, an expenditure of physical energy essential to the maintenance and continuance of a healthy life. We used to have two walks a day: in the morning before breakfast, or after, if I didnât go off to work, and in the evening, mostly after dinner.
But to go for a walk with a dog is to introduce it into the world of humans where a social civility prevails, to expose it to their sometimes pitiless stare
The age of classicism, with Descartes, saw the advent of a âmetaphysical and technical humanismâ that made man a domineering sovereign exercising his power over the physical world as it was laid out before him. As for Rousseau, as Iâve said, he rejected the Cartesian doctrine of the animal- machine, but he appears at the same time asone of the founders of modern humanism in that he emphasises the fundamental superiority of man as a free agent capable of extracting himself from the determinism of the natural world, while animals are condemned to submit to the rules imposed by nature. Perfectible (this is one of the key words of the
Second Discourse
), man becomes the agent of his own history individually as well as collectively, whereas animals do no more than repeat the same behaviours and thereby are unaware of progress, for good or ill.
Montaigne invites us into another world of thought and sensibility. With Montaigne, we are gently soothed by a feeling of reconciliation between mankind and animals. Mankind has not yet been torn from the community of living things. Chapter XII of the second book of the
Essays
, âApology for Raymond Sebondâ, teems with examples, each one as extraordinary as the next and often taken from ancient authors like Plutarch. This is one that I especially like because behind the image of the two dogsâthat of King Lysimachus and that of âone named PyrrhusââI see that of Mélodie, so friendly and faithful and full of gratitude . . .
As for friendship they (the beasts) have it, without comparison, more vital and more constant than men do. Hyrcanus, the dog of King Lysimachus, his master dead, remained obstinately on his bed refusing to eat or drink; and, the day that they burned his body, he ran and jumped into the fire, where he was burned. As too did the dog of one named Pyrrhus, as he did not move from the bed of his master after he died, and when he was taken away, he let himself be removed as well, and finally threw himself on to the pyre on which his masterâs body was burning. There are certain inclinations of affection that sometimes arise in us without thecounsel of reason, which come from a chance temerity that others call sympathy: like us the beasts are capable of it.
To read Montaigne, even though it requires some effort to tackle his writing because of its language, which predates the radical break brought about by the rationality of classicism, is like finding a magical balm that soothes the numberless ills inflicted on the animals that are forgotten, left, neglected, abandoned, eliminated, killed, slaughtered massively and industrially, here, there and everywhere, the world over. The French language, which I have embraced and made my own over a long apprenticeship, has come out of the age of Descartes. In a sense it carries within it the trace of this fundamental divide from which it becomes possible to assign the non-human living things to the category of machines to exploit. It is sad to note that my habitual post-Cartesian language somewhat clouds my vision when I contemplate Montaigneâs animal world: so abundant, so generous, so benevolent.
15
PUNISHMENTS
THE DAILY WALK constitutes a vital activity for a dog. It is a form of exercise, an expenditure of physical energy essential to the maintenance and continuance of a healthy life. We used to have two walks a day: in the morning before breakfast, or after, if I didnât go off to work, and in the evening, mostly after dinner.
But to go for a walk with a dog is to introduce it into the world of humans where a social civility prevails, to expose it to their sometimes pitiless stare
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