A prolific author, the range of his works was typical of Humanist interests. He published a Greek New Testament (1516), going back to early manuscript sources to correct the text. He promoted the translation of the Bible into the European languages. He was involved in Reformation theological issues, criticizing both orthodox views and Luther. Later, in the Counter-Reformation, his works were banned. His best-known work is probably the satire The Praise of Folly (1509), with marvelous engravings by Hans Holbein the Younger (who also painted the portrait shown above). His writing on education, free will, superstition and reason, and the conduct of a proper life earned him fame and followers for his views on the potential of the human mind. One mark of the honor he garnered in his own day is the engraving done by Albrecht Dürer (pictured here).

Another Humanist who electrified and united scholars in their criticisms of Aristotle and the universities was Petrus Ramus (Pierre de la Ramée, 1515-1572), a French scholar and teacher. Ramus took his degree from the University of Paris in 1536, despite his writing later that

“After having devoted three years and six months to Scholastic philosophy, according to the rules of our University: after having read, discussed, and meditated on the various treatises of the Organon (for of all the books of Aristotle those especially which treated of dialectic were read and re-read during the course of three years); even after, I say, having put in all that time, reckoning up the years completely occupied by the study of the Scholastic arts, I sought to learn to what end I could, as a consequence, apply the knowledge I had acquired with so much toil and fatigue. I soon perceived that all this dialectic had not rendered me more learned in history and the knowledge of antiquity, nor more skillful in eloquence, nor a better poet, nor wiser in anything. Ah, what a stupefaction, what a grief! How did I deplore the misfortune of my destiny, the barrenness of a mind that after so much labor could not gather or even perceive the fruits of that wisdom which was alleged to be found so abundantly in the dialectic of Aristotle!”

In his Disputation to earn his degree, Ramus defended the thesis that everything Aristotle concludes is wrong. His two principal works appeared in 1543, and were so controversial that they were investigated by a royal commission which condemned him. His own theory of logic emphasized the simplifying from the general to the specific, splitting categories down to ultimate truths. He also developed a new theory of rhetoric. He was a brilliant writer, and sharp critic of the methods of teaching. Bold and critical, Ramus was controversial enough to be constantly in political trouble for his critiques of university education and of Aristotle’s logic. He also became a Calvinist, and was killed in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris in 1572.