Abstract
Judith Shklar was much more comfortable smashing icons than worshipping them. Yet she made an exception for Montaigne, whom she celebrates as the “hero” of Ordinary Vices, present “in spirit … on every page” of the book (Shklar 1984: 1). That is not very surprising. Many survivors of Europe’s wars and social upheavals have found great comfort in Montaigne’s companionship. But Shklar signals much more than affinity and affection with her praise of the great French skeptic. For Montaigne, she tells us, “put cruelty first and it is from him that I have learned what follows from that conviction” (2,