In Praise of Folly

A satirical speech in Latin, written in 1509 at the London house of Thomas More, whose name it puns on in its Greek title. The speaker is Folly herself, who mounts the platform to praise her own gifts. In the first part she argues, with mock-learned skill, that human life depends on her: no one would marry, have children, keep friends or enjoy anything without a measure of illusion and self-love. The tone then sharpens. Folly turns on those who think themselves wise: grammarians, philosophers, lawyers, and above all scholastic theologians with their hair-splitting questions, along with monks, bishops, popes and princes who neglect the duties of their office. In the final part the joke turns serious. Drawing on Saint Paul, Folly praises the 'foolishness' of the Christian faith itself, the simple piety and self-forgetting love that the worldly call madness. The book was widely read and often attacked in the years before the Reformation.

It is one of the funniest books in the history of philosophy, and its mix of satire and sincere faith shows the Christian humanism that set the scene for the Reformation.