How Praise of Folly drew on The Republic
A documented line of influence: Erasmus demonstrably engaged Plato’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Republic
Plato · c. 375 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Praise of Folly
Erasmus · 1511
RenaissanceRelevance
6/10
On Praise of Folly’s page
- 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
On The Republic’s page
- Plato's most famous images become Erasmus's targets — affectionately
- In Praise of Folly, Folly herself invokes the Allegory of the Cave, and the book closes by folding the cave into her own creed: the deluded prisoners are her votaries
- Erasmus turns The Republic's grandest claims — the philosopher-king, the world beyond the shadows — into the raw material of his ironic mock-encomium