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In 1978/79 – when there was no ERASMUS program – I studied in Paris for a year. That year I lived in the Collège néerlandais of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. Formally this has nothing to do with Erasmus (but it does have to do with me), but this Cité Internationale was born out…

Every year, more than 60 people pursue doctoral degrees in the human and social sciences (SHS) at the Université de Paris Sorbonne Paris Nord in Villetaneuse, about 15 km north of Paris. Their research is coordinated by an École Doctorale, named after Erasmus since about 2010. A staff member at the school tells me that…

“Here stood the Collège de Montaigu, founded in 1314. Erasmus of Rotterdam lived there in 1495-1496” (Ici s’élevait le Collège de Montaigu, fondé en 1314. Erasme de Rotterdam y fut pensionnaire en 1495-1496) states the plaque opposite the Panthéon in Paris. It does not say that Erasmus and the other residents spoke of the vinegar…

Yesterday afternoon I cycled through old, medieval Leuven, where Erasmus once lived and where I visited the Erasmus Building last October. Those streets felt familiar, but I was on my way to the new Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve, located 25 km south. When KU Leuven became Dutch-speaking after the war, the Walloons founded a new Leuven with…

When do we call someone successful? And was Erasmus successful? What did he actually accomplish for himself or for us? According to Erasmus himself, he had a difficult life. It started at his birth (circa 1467) as the child of two unmarried parents. That bothered him a lot, although his parents not only cared very…

Free will and free trade? It seems to me that Erasmus’ faith in free will, and thus people’s own responsibility, works through for the better in concrete decisions and actions of those people. And so the conception of free will must also have an influence on the fair design of the economy and the wise…

“Because I hope for such answers as yours,” I reply when in the Erasmus House at KU Leuven, a psychology professor interrupts his praise of Erasmus by asking why I am actually asking him and his colleague about Erasmus. “Erasmus deserves great admiration, he was critical but open and constructive, humane and peaceful, solution-oriented and…

An Erasmus pilgrim like me must, of course, visit the Erasmus House in Brussels, where Erasmus himself stayed in 1521. Besides being a museum, it is also the starting point of all kinds of educational programs around Erasmus and his time. But what does the Erasmus House say about Erasmus in the 21st century? At…

“Why else would man want to live longer than to be of service to as many others as possible?” is the motto of Erasmus Hospital and Campus Érasme in Brussels. This campus houses the health training programs of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Someone told me that there is also a statue of Erasmus in…

“Hey, you went to the Gymnaisum Erasmianum. You must know something about Erasmus”. The first two students I speak to on campus at Woudestein about Erasmus immediately delegate my question to a fellow student who is just approaching on his bike. On the other campus, Hoboken where the medical school is located, two conversations begin…