Dr. Ellie Anderson and Dr. David PeñaGuzmán, philosophy professors and cohosts of Overthink podcast, discuss Michel de Montaigne’s famous essay, “On Friendship”. Ellie and David give some context for the text through Montaigne's friendship with Étienne de la Boétie and how la Boétie's death shaped Montaigne’s creation of the essay form. They attempt to answer some questions that arise from the text: do love and friendship require or follow reason? Can one be platonically polyamorous—have more than one true friend? How does Montaigne’s theory of friendship diverge from Aristotle’s, and how does it form a critique of universalism in ancient philosophy more broadly?

Graphics and editing by Aaron Morgan

Support Overthink on Patreon here:   / overthinkpodcast