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de Montaigne was a famous 16th century French philosopher, author and statesman who lived during a period of brutal and vengeful wars between Catholics and Protestants -- not only surviving them but also rising above them.
While not the first to write short discussions of particular topics (essays), he popularized the genre, which he named "Essais," or attempts, from the French verb "essayer," to try.
His works impacted Descartes, Rousseau, Pascal, Nietzsche, Emerson and possibly the later works of Shakespeare, among others.
Eric Hoffer, a 20th century San Francisco longshoreman and a social and moral philosopher, frequently applied Montaigne principles to contemporary problems.
Montaigne's writings are about life. In a biography of him, Sarah Bakewell entitled her chapters "How to Live."
Gilhuly attended Sweet Briar College and Yale Law School. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of London and earned a Master of Arts in Teaching at Manhattanville College.
For more than two decades, she has given multiple lectures in Greenwich on the plays of Shakespeare and has taught the Greek classics and the writings of Montaigne in the Greenwich Adult Continuing Education program. In 1995, she received the Distinguished Teacher award at Greenwich High School.
The Greenwich Retired Men’s Association offers a free program every Wednesday that is open to the public, both men and women; no reservations are required. Its social break starts at 10:40 a.m., followed promptly by its speaker at 11 a.m.
For additional information on the Retired Men's Association of Greenwich, click here or contact info@greenwichrma.org.
Programs are at the First Presbyterian Church, 1 West Putnam in Greenwich.
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