Erasmus Of Barow Analysis

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Political philosophy of Erasmus of Rotterdam Erasmus of Rotterdam is probably not among famous thinkers who instantly come to mind while thinking about philosophy and its changes. Even for people who are academically educated in history of philosophy Erasmus doesn 't seem to be a main figure among philosophers, at least judging by a number of publications about him. If he is present in them it is always just mentioning somewhere in a foreground of a whole text, often as an example to illustrate the number of thinkers who lived in the same age.
At the same time a number of writers who took upon themselves to analyze his work and style say that Erasmus of Rotterdam possessed no understanding of philosophy whatsoever. In my opinion …show more content…

While the text is an articulation of his political and pedagogical philosophy, it is also the product of self-interest as Erasmus wrote the manual as he tried to secure the profitable position as an adviser and tutor to the future Emperor. Consequently, The Education of a Christian Prince, particularly its introductory Dedicatory Epistle and first chapter, should be understood as both a revealing articulation of how the early modern period transformed political authority by increasing the social and political influence of the monarchy, and a carefully crafted text meant to highlight the importance of advisors and Erasmus’ own credentials. Importantly, this dynamic is immediately notable in Erasmus’ Dedicatory Epistle written directly to Prince Charles. Erasmus promptly begins his guide by reminding Charles of the importance of good advisers, “whenever kings call…council and exclude those basest of advisers — ambition, wrath, cupidity, and flattery — the state flourishes in …show more content…

He was disgusted by the bilateral cruelties committed during the religious Reformation, as the Catholic Church and the Holy Inquisition persecuted Lutherans as heretics and threatened them with death, while Martin Luther and his allied German princes ordered the execution of more than 100,000 peasants who rebelled against their rule in 1525. Erasmus considered the violent strife of the Reformation to be the greatest obstacle to peaceful scholarship and intellectual progress in his