Desiderius Erasmus · Philosophy
Erasmus was the Renaissance’s great voice against war. In the adage <em>Dulce bellum inexpertis</em> and <em>The Education of a Christian Prince</em>, he condemned war as the sum of all evils and demanded that a ruler serve his people in peace - the exact opposite of the cold counsel his contemporary Machiavelli was giving the prince.
You learned that Erasmus attacked war in the adage Dulce bellum inexpertis (‘war is sweet to those who have never tried it’) and set out an ideal of the peaceful, virtuous ruler in The Education of a Christian Prince (1516), directly opposing the realpolitik of Machiavelli’s The Prince . Explain his…
Leads to Niccolò Machiavelli.
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