Cover -- Half-title -- Dedication -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on the Texts -- Introduction -- PART I A NEW FIGURE -- 1 "That Is Where He Got It!" -- Skepticism Transformed -- Deliberate Philosophy -- What Is Accidental Philosophy? -- 2 Bending and Stretching the Categories of Traditional Metaphysics -- Being and Becoming -- Nature -- Causality -- The Universal and the Particular -- 3 The Essay as Philosophical Form -- The Meaning of "Essay" -- Purpose -- Audience -- The Practice of Quotation and the Essence of Thought -- The Dialectic of History and Poetry -- Daemonic Order -- PART II ACCIDENTAL PHILOSOPHY -- 4 The Circular Dialectic of Self-Knowledge -- Circular Dialectic -- "Of vain subtleties" -- "By diverse means we arrive at the same end" -- "Of drunkenness" -- "That to philosophize is to learn how to die" -- "Of custom" -- Essays I.I, II.I, and III.I -- Circular Dialectic and Skepticism -- The Dialectic of Presumption -- 5 "What It Means to Believe" -- Nature and Grace -- This World -- True Repentance -- The Underlying Presence of Faith -- The Dialectic of Faith and Reason -- The Harmony of Faith and Reason -- 6 The Latent Metaphysics of Accidental Philosophy -- Thought Thinking Thought -- Accidental Being -- PART III THE CHARACTER OF THE ACCIDENTAL PHILOSOPHER -- 7 Montaigne's Character -- "Truth Said in Laughing" -- The Friendship That We Owe Ourselves -- Relocating the Great-Souled Man -- Openness of Heart and Tongue -- 8 What He Learned in the Nursery -- The Accidental Authority of Example -- The Excesses of Virtue -- Moderating Virtue -- Natural Goodness and Innocence -- Montaigne's Reformation -- 9 Christianity and the Limits of Politics -- The Limits of Politics -- Two Cities -- The Religion of Publicness -- Notes -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: "That Is Where He Got It !".

Chapter 2: Bending and Stretching the Categories of Traditional Metaphysics -- Chapter 3: The Essay as Philosophical Form -- Chapter 4: The Circular Dialectic of Self-Knowledge -- Chapter 5: "What It Means to Believe" -- Chapter 6: The Latent Metaphysics of Accidental Philosophy -- Chapter 7: Montaigne's Character -- Chapter 8: What He Learned in the Nursery -- Chapter 9: Christianity and the Limits of Politics -- Works Cited -- Index.