Erasmus: The 16th Century's Pioneer of Peace Education and a Culture of Peace.

摘要

More than a century before Grotius wrote his famous work on international law, his\udcountryman Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam laid the foundations for the modern\udcritique of war. In several writings, especially those published in the period 1515-\ud1517, the "prince of humanists" brilliantly and devastatingly condemned war not\udonly on Christian but also on secular/rational grounds. His graphic depiction of the\udmiseries of war, together with his impassionate plea for its avoidance, remains\udunparalleled. Erasmus argued as a moralist and educator rather than as a political\udtheorist or statesman. If any single individual in the modern world can be credited\udwith "the invention of peace", the honour belongs to Erasmus rather than Kant whose\udessay on perpetual peace was published nearly three centuries later.