Praise of Folly
Erasmus1511Erasmus used humor to take apart the corruption, hypocrisy, and lazy thinking of his age, going after the Church, the scholars, and the kings with the same precision.
Read this if you…
- want a guy from 1500s arguing being dumb is good
- want a guy making fun of the pope catholicism
- want a philosophical text that's short and funny (underrated)
Skip this if you…
- want philosophical rigor, this is more playful
Why It Matters
Erasmus used humor to take apart the corruption, hypocrisy, and lazy thinking of his age, going after the Church, the scholars, and the kings with the same precision. It's the sharpest humanist satire of the Renaissance, and it showed you could criticize institutions without torching every bridge. His effect on the Reformation was huge, even if he never meant it.
The 
Take
Super short read, funny and philosophical. Totally against everything before its time and near its time. A concept that is said often but not often expounded upon
Where to go next
- Ecclesiastes by Solomon. Praise of Folly built on it. - Folly's whole argument leans on Solomon — she cites "the number of fools is infinite" (Vulgate Eccl. 1:15) to claim Scripture itself confesses that folly rules - Erasmus is reading *Ecclesiastes* against the grain: the somber book of "vanity of vanities" becomes Folly's favorite scriptural proof - Read Solomon first and you'll catch the joke — Folly enlists the Bible's own wisdom to argue even its wisest king was a fool
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca. Praise of Folly built on it. - Erasmus names "the great Stoic Seneca" by name — *Praise of Folly* is, in part, a comic quarrel with the *Letters* - Seneca's program of disciplining the passions is exactly what Folly ridicules: a sage so emotionless he ceases to be human - Read the *Letters* first and you'll hear precisely which Stoic ideal Erasmus is laughing at
- The Republic by Plato. Praise of Folly built on it. - *Praise of Folly* puts Plato in Folly's mouth and lets her run - She quotes the *Republic*'s philosopher-king maxim only to invert it, and ends by claiming the cave's chained prisoners as her own - Reading *The Republic* first means you catch the joke at full volume — Erasmus is mocking the very allegory of illusion and enlightenment that Plato built his ideal state upon
- Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais. Praise of Folly shaped it. - Rabelais called Erasmus "my spiritual father and mother" and said all he is, he owes to Erasmus and his writings - *Praise of Folly* is the satirical engine Rabelais ran on — the laughing, learned voice that mocks pedantry, piety, and self-importance while smuggling in real ideas - Read it first and you see where the giants got their grin: humanist wit turned loose into the rollicking, ribald comedy of *Gargantua and Pantagruel*
- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Praise of Folly shaped it. - Erasmus's central joke — that folly sees truer than sense, that the fool is the wise one — is the seed of Cervantes's mad knight - Cervantes came up inside this tradition: his tutor López de Hoyos was an Erasmian, and the humanist irony of *Folly* runs straight through *Don Quixote* - *Folly* turns wisdom inside out in an essay; *Don Quixote* does it across a whole life
Depicted in Art
Erasmus in profile at his desk, pen in hand, writing on a sheet of paper with books and inkstand before him.
Hans Holbein the Younger, 1523
Erasmus at his writing desk in scholar's cap and gown, mid-sentence, with shelved books behind him.
Quinten Metsys, 1517
The personified figure of Folly, fool's cap and bells, ascends a wooden pulpit to begin her oration.
Hans Holbein the Younger, 1515
A single fool in cap and bells, three-quarter profile, holding a marotte — Folly's stock attendant figure.
Hans Holbein the Younger, 1515
A boatload of revelers — a nun and friar singing, peasants drinking, a fool perched in the rigging — drifting nowhere.
Hieronymus Bosch, 1500
Recommended Editions
Betty Radice
Penguin Classics · 1993
Radice catches the irony, which is the whole game. Folly's self-praise actually reads as funny in her English, and A.H.T. Levi's intro sets up the Renaissance humanism without bogging the book down.
Please support us by purchasing through these links, at no extra cost to you!
Deep Dive
What It's About
This summary gives away plot details.
Notable Quotes
“In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”
“The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.”