Praise Of Folly

Throughout the book, Erasmus playfully blurs the distinction between wisdom and folly. Folly delivers her message in support of herself, but she presents her opinions as more sensible than what society considers; thus, folly is in fact a higher wisdom. Meanwhile, behavior that society considers sensible is shown to be foolish. For example, those whom society considers wise, e.g., philosophers and rulers, are filled with delusions and behave terribly: “They know nothing at all, yet they claim to know everything” (85). The simple-minded and the ignorant, in contrast, possess a redemptive common sense. In this way, the book both exposes negative folly and extols positive folly.

Folly treats her audience as confidants, or “initiates of Folly” (134) who are sympathetic to her views. She flatters them while depicting individuals outside the assembly as the true fools. The ambiguity of wisdom when compared to foolishness is visible at one point, where Folly is unsure whether to call her audience “wise” or “foolish”:

What would this life be, or would it seem worth calling life at all, if its pleasure was taken away? I hear your applause, and in fact I’ve always felt sure that none of you was so wise or rather so foolish—no, I mean so wise—as to think it could (21).