ProQuest Dissertations - The University of Arizona Campus Repository

one's inclinations.
Puisqu'il a pleu a Dieu nous douer de
quelque capacite de discours, affin que,
corame les testes nous ne fussions pas
servilement assujectis a des lois communes,
ains que nous nous appliquassions
par jugement et liberte volontaire,
nous devonss prester un peu a la sinple
authorite de nature, mais non pas nous
laisser tyranniqueraent emporter a elle;
la seule raison doit avoir la conduite
de nos inclinations (II, viii, I, p. 424).
Coustume occurs more than one hundred times
throughout the Essais. For Roland Barthes, a word pronounced
is always incorporated, and he believes that in the vocabulary
of an author there is always a mot-mana. a word whose meaning
is burning, multiforme, not able to be grasped, and as though
sacred. It gives the illusion that by this word one may
answer to everything (Bauer, 1991, p. 69). The general word,
or key word, or mot-mana for Montaigne would seem to be
coustume. Coustume as defined by Villey (1933, p. 157) means
accoutumance. habitude. that is, what is according to usage,
or habitual. However, according to the Categories of
Aristotle, the meaning intended is signified by the context in
which a term is used. Scientific demonstration involves
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