Why do so many people suffer from feelings of low self-esteem? Alain De Botton looks at the problem through the eyes of the French 16th century philosopher Michel de Montaigne, who singled out three main reasons why we might feel bad about ourselves - and offered practical solutions for them all. Alain takes us on a personal journey from Montaigne's home near Bordeaux, to his own university, Cambridge, where he finds that people could still benefit from the lessons of Montaigne's philosophy.