Étienne de La Boétie

Étienne de La Boétie : Discourse on Voluntary Servitude

Author

The renown of Étienne de La Boétie, a friend of Montaigne, is attached to a written text composed "in honor of freedom, against tyrants." How can one explain that an entire people can bend under the yoke of one man without strength or prestige? To this question, the author answers that servitude is voluntary; it is the peoples who, in agreeing to submit themselves, are in contravention of what is deeper in human nat…

• Essay
• Philosophy
• Political