Erasmus of Rotterdam was basically the original intellectual disruptor. In 1509, while hanging out at Thomas More’s house in London, he penned a little book called The Praise of Folly. He wrote it in about a week. It wasn't meant to be a world-shaking manifesto, honestly. It was a joke. A "jeu d'esprit." But that joke ended up being one of the most dangerous pieces of literature in the history of the Western world.
If you’ve ever felt like the world is run by idiots, you’re basically an Erasmian.
The book is narrated by "Folly" herself. She’s a personified goddess, wearing a cap and bells, standing at a podium and telling anyone who will listen that she is the reason the human race hasn't gone extinct yet. It's brilliant. It’s also incredibly biting. By having a "fool" deliver the message, Erasmus could say things that would have gotten him burned at the stake if he'd said them as a serious scholar.
Why The Praise of Folly Still Matters
We live in an age of "experts." We have influencers, data scientists, and political pundits telling us exactly how to live. Erasmus would have hated them. Or, more accurately, he would have laughed at them. The Praise of Folly reminds us that the quest for perfect rationality is a trap.
Think about it. If humans were purely rational, would we ever fall in love? Love is objectively a terrible investment. It’s messy, it’s high-risk, and it usually ends in heartbreak or domestic chores. Yet, Folly argues that without this "madness," the world would be a cold, empty place. She claims that the "wise man" is a useless, stony creature who can’t even make a friend or enjoy a dinner party because he’s too busy judging everyone’s grammar.
It’s about the "sweetness of ignorance."
Erasmus wasn't saying people should be stupid. Not exactly. He was a humanist. He loved Greek and Latin. He spent his life editing the New Testament. But he saw that the "learned" men of his time—the Scholastic theologians who argued about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin—were the biggest fools of all. They had lost the "philosophy of Christ," which he believed was rooted in simplicity and heart, not complex syllogisms.
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The Most Savage Roasts in History
When you read The Praise of Folly today, the targets feel surprisingly modern. Erasmus goes after the clergy, sure. He mocks the monks who think the length of their sleeves matters more than charity. He mocks the Popes who prefer war to peace. But he also goes after:
- The Grammarians: People who think their lives are fulfilled because they discovered a new rule for a Greek verb.
- The Lawyers: Who spin webs of confusion just to collect fees.
- The Scientists: (Or the "Natural Philosophers" of the time) who claim to know the secrets of the universe when they don’t even know themselves.
- The Socialites: People who live for titles and fake prestige.
He basically calls out everyone.
There’s a specific nuance here that many people miss. Erasmus isn't just pointing fingers. He includes himself. He knows he’s a scholar. He knows he’s part of the system. This self-awareness is what makes the book "human-quality" rather than just a dry polemic. It’s satire with a soul.
The Great Misconception: Was Erasmus a Protestant?
People often say "Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched." It’s a famous quote from the 16th century. And yeah, Martin Luther used Erasmus’s Greek New Testament to fuel the Reformation. But Erasmus never left the Catholic Church. He hated the corruption, but he hated the chaos of a schism even more.
He was stuck in the middle. The Catholics thought he was a secret heretic; the Protestants thought he was a coward for not joining them.
This tension is all over The Praise of Folly. It’s a book about the "middle way." It suggests that perhaps the most foolish thing of all is thinking you have the absolute, total truth. In a world where everyone is screaming their "truth" at 280 characters a pop, Erasmus’s skepticism feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s okay to be a bit confused. It’s okay to recognize that life is a comedy of errors.
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The Psychology of Folly
Modern psychology actually backs up a lot of what Folly says. We have "positive illusions." We think we’re better drivers than we are. We think our kids are smarter than they are. We think we’ll finish that project by Friday.
If we didn't have these "follies," we’d probably just stay in bed all day paralyzed by the grim reality of our own mortality.
Erasmus calls this philautia—self-love. He argues that a little bit of self-love is the "seasoning" of life. If you don't like yourself a little bit, you can't be kind to anyone else. It's a remarkably modern insight for a guy wearing a fur-lined robe in 1500s Basel.
He explores the idea of the "Social Mask." We all play roles. The king plays the king, the priest plays the priest. If you walk onto a stage and rip the mask off an actor mid-performance, you haven't "saved" the play; you’ve ruined it. Erasmus suggests that "Folly" is what allows society to keep performing. We agree to play along with each other’s nonsense because the alternative is total social collapse.
How to Read Erasmus Today
Don't buy a dry, academic translation. You want one that captures the snark. The Betty Radice translation for Penguin Classics is usually the gold standard because she gets the humor.
When you read it, look for the "Encomium Moriae" pun. The title is a double entendre. Moriae is the Greek word for Folly, but it’s also a play on the name of his friend, Thomas More. He’s literally writing "The Praise of More." It’s a private joke between two of the smartest guys in Europe that just happened to change the course of intellectual history.
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The ending of the book takes a weird, sharp turn. It stops being funny. Folly starts talking about "Christian Folly"—the idea that the Gospel itself is a form of foolishness to the "wise" world. It’s a deeply mystical, almost radical conclusion. He argues that true spirituality is a kind of ecstasy, a "standing outside oneself."
It’s a reminder that beneath the satire, Erasmus was a man looking for something real.
Actionable Steps for the Modern "Fool"
If you want to apply the wisdom of The Praise of Folly to your actual life in 2026, here’s how to do it without becoming a 16th-century monk:
- Practice Intellectual Humility: Next time you’re 100% sure you’re right about a political or social issue, ask yourself: "What if I’m the one wearing the bells?" Just entertaining the thought reduces the temperature of the room.
- Audit Your "Wise" Pursuits: Are you spending 40 hours a week on something that actually matters, or are you a "Grammarian" obsessing over the modern equivalent of Greek tenses? If your work doesn't produce some kind of "joy" or "utility," it might just be high-level folly.
- Embrace the Mess: Stop trying to optimize every second of your existence. Let yourself be a bit "foolish." Buy the thing that doesn't make sense. Take the detour. Talk to the person who isn't "useful" to your career.
- Spot the Personas: Watch the news or scroll through social media and try to identify the "masks." Once you see the performance, it’s much harder to get angry at the performers. You realize they’re just caught up in the play.
Erasmus didn't write this book to change the government or fix the tax code. He wrote it to change how we see the person in the mirror. He wanted us to laugh—at the world, but mostly at ourselves. Because once you can laugh at your own foolishness, you’re finally, ironically, starting to become wise.
Read it for the satire. Stay for the humanity. It’s a short book, but it’s got enough punch to knock the ego out of just about anyone.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Understanding:
- Contextualize the Author: Read a brief biography of Erasmus to understand his rivalry with Martin Luther; their debate on "Free Will" is the perfect sequel to the themes in The Praise of Folly.
- Compare the Satire: Pair your reading with Utopia by Thomas More. Since both books were born from the same friendship and era, seeing how More handles "folly" through a political lens provides a fascinating contrast.
- Audit Your Sources: Check out the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on Desiderius Erasmus to see how modern philosophers categorize his "skepticism" and how it paved the way for the Enlightenment.