The humanity of others

Ali Benmakhlouf

(Albin Michel, 240 pages, 2023)

Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice.

—Montaigne

How to speak of humanism today? To answer this question, Moroccan philosopher Ali Benmakhlouf turns to Montaigne (1533–1592). Through a rich and attentive reading of key passages 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 diversity of others who entered into Europe’s consciousness during the Renaissance: natives of the Americas, Turks, or Africans, without forgetting those close at home who, “emaciated from hunger,” begged at the doors of those “gorged with all kinds of commodities.” Montaigne enumerated and detailed these different ways of life but, as Benmakhlouf argues, his main concern was with others in the plural as opposed to the other, an abstract philosophical term.

Retracing Western humanism from Pico della Mirandola to Sartre, via Ibn Tufayl, a twelfth-century Andalusian author, Benmakhlouf navigates the plurality of European philosophy: from the tradition that promoted the primacy of the white race over populations qualified as “savages” or “primitives” to a critical and inclusive humanist tradition carried by authors as diverse as Shakespeare, Aimé Césaire, and anthropologist Jack Goody.

By orchestrating a skillful dialogue between a variety of authors, Benmakhlouf brilliantly demonstrates the topicality of Montaigne. Wishing to rehabilitate humanism as embodied by Montaigne, the author calls for the unity of the human race that can only be found at the heart of real diversity. The Humanity of Others will certainly enrich the long-standing tradition of commentaries inspired by Montaigne’s oeuvre.

Ali Benmakhlouf is a professor of philosophy and divides his time between France and Morocco. His research interests include Arabic philosophy, the philosophy of logic, and questions of bioethics. He is a member of the French National Ethics Advisory Committee and President of the Deontological and Ethical Advisory Committee at the IRD (Research Institute for Development). His most recent books are La force des raisons: logique et médecine (Fayard, 2018), La conversation comme manière de vivre (Albin Michel, 2016), and Pourquoi lire les philosophes arabes (Albin Michel, 2015). He previously published Montaigne (Les Belles Lettres, 2008).