Archiv der Kategorie: Philosophy & Politics (English)

Manual of a Christian Knight – Desiderius Erasmus

We get some sense of things which were moving deeply in Erasmus’ life from his “Manual of a Christian Knight.” We find here a characteristic criticism of religious forms taking the place of religious substance. We find a tremendous emphasis upon the intelligence which in no way lessens the emphasis on vital piety. Prayer and knowledge are to work together in the life of the Christian knight. The inner is to give force and power to the outer. The outer is never to take the place of the inner. The warfare and the weapons and the true wisdom of the Christian are discussed. There is many a pithy judgment: “The way to … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Praise of Folly – Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus reached England after a stay in Italy early in the summer of 1510. Soon afterwards, in Thomas More’s house at Bucklersbury, he rapidly wrote his famous satire, the Encomium Moriae, or “Praise of Folly,” in which Folly celebrates her own praises as the great source of human pleasures. He had been meditating this piece on the long journey from Rome; it is a kaleidoscope of his experiences in Italy, and of earlier memories. As to the title, Moria, the Greek word for “folly,” was a playful allusion, of course, to the name of his wise and witty host. This “Praise of Folly” is a satire, not only in the modern but in … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Complaint of Peace – Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus was a very human man. A humanist, who was no more humane than the rest of the wits and cynics of his time, there was in him a plenty of human weaknesses and uglinesses. Nevertheless he does strike occasionally a note that is genuinely human, universally true, accordant with all the race of men. And this is eminently so of the “Complaint of Peace.” The complaints which he puts in the mouth of Peace might have come from the lips of Divae Paris with as much verisimilitude as they did when Erasmus echoed them many centuries ago.

The Complaint of Peace.

Format: eBook.

The Complaint of Peace.

ISBN: 9783849653811.

Excerpt … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Colloquies, Volume 2 – Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus’ services to a new way of learning took various forms. He wrote school-books, bringing out his view that boys were kept too long over grammar, and ought to begin reading some good author as soon as possible. His own “Colloquies” were meant partly as models of colloquial Latin; the book was long a standard one in education. These lively dialogues are prose idylls with an ethical purpose,—the dramatic expression of the writer’s views on the life of the day. Thus the dialogue between the Learned Lady and the Abbot depicts monastic illiteracy; that between the Soldier and the Carthusian brings out the seamy side of the military calling. Lucian has influenced the … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Colloquies, Volume 1 – Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus’ services to a new way of learning took various forms. He wrote school-books, bringing out his view that boys were kept too long over grammar, and ought to begin reading some good author as soon as possible. His own “Colloquies” were meant partly as models of colloquial Latin; the book was long a standard one in education. These lively dialogues are prose idylls with an ethical purpose,—the dramatic expression of the writer’s views on the life of the day. Thus the dialogue between the Learned Lady and the Abbot depicts monastic illiteracy; that between the Soldier and the Carthusian brings out the seamy side of the military calling. Lucian has influenced the … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...