Étienne de La Boétie

Étienne de La Boétie was a French political theorist and author of the Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. He received his law degree from the University of Orléans in 1553, and the heady atmosphere of free inquiry that persisted there provided an inspiring milieu for La Boétie ... The Discourse so impressed essayist Michel de Montaigne that he sought out La Boétie in 1559; they remained good friends until La Boétie's untimely death. Although La Boétie never penned another comparable political piece, he wrote poetry and was a distinguished judge and diplomatic negotiator.

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Étienne de La Boétie was a French jurist, poet, and political theorist who is best remembered as the subject of Michael de Montaigne's essay 'Of Friendship' and for his own essay 'The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude.'

Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563) is one of the seminal political philosophers, not only as a founder of modern political philosophy in France but also for the timeless relevance of many of his theoretical insights.

Estienne de la Boétie (1530-1563) was a friend of Montaigne and made a name for himself with his poetry and translations of ancient Greek authors. He is perhaps better known today for his essay 'Discourse of Voluntary Servitude' where he explores why the majority too often willingly capitulates to the demands of a tiny ruling minority.

Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563) was a French judge, writer, and a founder of modern political philosophy in France. He is best remembered as the great and close friend of the eminent essayist Michel de Montaigne, in one of history's most notable friendships.

La Boétie (pronounced La Bwettie) was particularly interested in why people obey. He asked, "If a tyrant is one man and his subjects are many, why do they consent to their own enslavement?" He did not believe that the state ruled primarily through force ... La Boétie acquired his renown on the basis of one short essay that argued tyranny is "automatically defeated" when people refuse to consent to their own enslavement ... Born into an affluent and politically connected family, La Boétie escaped the illiteracy, misery, and disease that befell most of his countrymen.

At the young age of 33, La Boétie died in the arms of his friend Montaigne, who was moved by the event to write his famous essay "On Friendship." ... [I]t is mainly through this essay that the larger world knows of ... La Boétie ... If La Boétie is right, ... then nature itself argues the logic of not cooperating with tyranny. There is something within man and beast that resists the tension of a leash. Rather than break the tension by attacking those who hold the reins, [he] told people to let the tension go slack. People should refuse either violence or submission. They should simply say No.

Étienne de La Boétie, the ... political philosopher, pointed out what should be obvious: the ruled always outnumber their rulers. In ... The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, he asked,

how it happens that so many men, so many villages, so many cities, so many nations, sometimes suffer under a single tyrant who has no other power than the power they give him; who is able to harm them only to the extent to which they have the willingness to bear with him; who could do them absolutely no injury unless they preferred to put up with him rather than contradict him. Surely a striking situation! ...

Étienne de la Boétie was born in Sarlat, in the Périgord region of southwest France, in 1530, to an aristocratic family. His father was a royal official of the Périgord region, and his mother was the sister of the president of the Bordeaux Parlement (assembly of lawyers) ... La Boétie was ... the first theorist to move from the emphasis on the importance of consent to one on the strategic importance of toppling tyranny by leading the public to withdraw that consent. Hence, [he] was the first theorist of the strategy of mass, nonviolent civil disobedience of State edicts and exactions.

In a recent essay on the sixteenth-century author, Etienne de la Boetie, Robert Klassen highlights several passages from [La Boetie]'s book, ... Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. [La Boetie] believed that the State's use of redistributed wealth was the basis of its authority ... Men's acceptance of this moral claim has been the basis of their willingness to submit voluntarily to the State. [La Boetie] fully understood that if all men refused to cooperate with the State's agents except under threat of immediate violence, no civil ruler could enforce his claims beyond his immediate surroundings.

In The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, the sixteenth-century French poet, judge, and political philosopher Étienne de La Boétie ... was establishing the undeniable but overlooked truth that in any political system the ruled vastly outnumber the rulers. Brute force cannot be the key to maintaining despotism because the subjects always hold the potential to overwhelm the prince ... La Boétie wanted to know how the multitude is held in check by the ruling clique when they had it in their power to refuse. He concluded that habit has a lot to do with it ...

"Why in the world do people consent to their own enslavement?" asks Murray Rothbard in his introduction to a new edition of Etienne [de] La Boetie's The Politics of Obedience. Rothbard is not posing a new question but is summing up La Boetie's dismay over the individual's willingness to submit to tyranny. La Boetie's classic was written more than four centuries ago, but the question it raises has seldom been answered to anyone's satisfaction. By focusing upon the cowardly failure of the individual, La Boetie shifts his political inquiry into the realm of psychology.