The Western Canon is the spring from which diligent readers gather the will and clarity of mind to battle the militant aberrations that dominate postmodern life. The literary and philosophical works that make up the Western Canon form a vibrant tapestry whose theme is sublimity. Another word for this contribution to western civilization is wisdom.

Besides Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy, one of the most emblematic works of the Western Canon that makes wisdom its alpha and omega is Erasmus of Rotterdam’s The Praise of Folly. While The Consolation of Philosophy has personified lady wisdom engage in conversation with Boethius—who awaits execution—The Praise of Folly has folly lamenting how little respect she gets.

In trying to gain recognition for her essential involvement in all manner of human behavior and affairs, folly finds herself ignored and betrayed by man. Standing before a crowd of onlookers and wearing a fool’s costume, folly suggests to those present that they ought to build her a monument to honor her contribution to human affairs since time immemorial.

Thus, folly articulates the catalog of human traits, beliefs and behavior that are impossible without engaging with folly. The Praise of Folly is Erasmus’ no-nonsense tribute to the permanent things, those essences that inform man’s nature. Folly, who is never coy, let’s the reader know that she is embedded in the marrow of human nature.  Folly’s blatant attack on human stupidity leaves no stone unturned. But this is only the beginning. While folly takes aim at imbecility, the havoc it wreaks on human affairs and the platitudes it cherishes, folly’s brightest ire is reserved for hypocrisy.

The Praise of Folly is a work of satire. However, in Erasmus’ case satire acts as a mirror that is placed in front of man, while the author dares the reader to ignore the truths it conveys about us. The book begins with frolicsome folly sizing up her listeners. In the latter part of the work folly unleashes a tempest of chastisement on man. Like the vast majority of authors and thinkers that make up the Western Canon, Erasmus was a spiritual aristocrat, in addition to being a Christian non-conformist. These qualities make Erasmus a solitary thinker – a precondition for intellectual honesty.

Folly assures the people who are gathered before her that she is not a counterfeit “nor do I carry one thing in my looks and another in my breast.” The latter is an affront to shysters of every stripe. Yet folly is aided by many human traits. Of central importance to human affectation, she signals out self-love and flattery.

Folly’s critical sword spares no one. Society, she tells us, is populated by fools. Folly then goes on to dissect the dominion that hypocrisy has over society. From self-absorbed intellectuals to unbelieving priests to false friendships, no one is spared. Special attention is paid to those who consider themselves smart—the purveyors of crafty wit. What irks folly most about pseudo intellectuals is their arrogance in pontificating about nature, without knowing much about the true origin of human reality.

Folly laments that nature does not propagate wisdom, only foolishness. Cicero’s son turned out a fool and wise Socrates’s children “were more like their Mother than their Father, that is to say, fools.”

Life is a comedy, Erasmus asserts. Everything is “represented by counterfeit.” Man is an imposter who rarely knows the rhyme and reason of life. For this reason, people “walk up and down in one another’s Disguises, and Act their respective Part…”

So, what does Erasmus tell us is the corrective to this ship of fools?  He is adamant that, much like Leibniz’s assertion that “this is the best of all possible worlds,” life as man knows it is what it ought to be. Erasmus argues that man cannot be disappointed with life, for we have nothing else to compare it to. Man needs to let life be and learn to live with flair, cherish life. For this reason, the role of effective government is not to change the world, as the misguided Karl Marx would later arrogantly proclaim, but to contain and manage tomfoolery.

The Praise of Folly is a philosophical satire that accepts man and the human condition at face value. Erasmus’ brilliance—this is verified by the longevity of his seminal work—is his understanding of man as a cosmic being. By removing the fat from social-political interpretations of man and society, Erasmus rests his case on the evidence of human history up to his own time. Given the essence of human nature, Erasmus was confident that man’s future would resemble the past.

Erasmus’ profound hope was that individual persons could attain immortality in an afterlife. His admonition for the future of man is simple: that this too shall pass, only to add to the large repertoire of man’s folly.