Étienne de La Boétie
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Étienne de La Boétie (November 1, 1530 - August 18, 1563) was a French judge, writer, political philosopher and friend of Montaigne, author of the Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (Discours de la servitude volontaire).
[edit] Biography
Born at Sarlat, he served with Montaigne in the Bordeaux parlement and is immortalized in Montaigne’s essay on friendship. La Boétie’s writings include a few sonnets, translations from the classics, and an essay attacking absolute monarchy and tyranny in general, Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr'un (Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, or the Anti-Dictator). The essay asserts that tyrants have power because the people give it to them. Liberty has been abandoned once by society, which afterward stay corrupted and prefers the slavery of the courtesan to the freedom of one who refuses to dominate as he refuses to obey. Thus, La Boétie linked together obedience and domination, a relationship which would be later theorized by anarchist thinkers such as Proudhon. By advocating a solution of simply refusing to support the tyrant, he became one of the earliest advocates of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance.
He wrote the essay in 1549 at the age of 18, but it was not published until 1576. He died at Germignan near Bordeaux in 1563. His last days are described in a long letter from Montaigne to his own father.
[edit] External links
- (French) Text on Wikisource
- (English) Discours de la servitude volontaire, translated and with an introduction about its reception
- http://www.forget-me.net/LaBoetie/ (PDF, LaTeX format)
- Poetry (in French)
[edit] Bibliography
- Œuvres complètes, Editions William Blake & Co., 1991. ISBN 2-905810602
- Discours de la servitude volontaire, Editions Mille et une nuits, 1997. ISBN 2-910233944
- Discours de la servitude volontaire, Editions Flammarion, 1993. ISBN 2-080703943
- The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude with an introduction by Murray Rothbard, Free Life Editions, 1975. ISBN 0-914156-11-X
