Étienne or Estienne de La Boétie (; ; 1 November 1530 – 18 August 1563) was a French magistrate, classicist, writer, poet and political theorist, best remembered for his friendship with essayist

Michel de Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne ( ; ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), commonly known as Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the the essay ...

. His early political treatise '' Discourse on Voluntary Servitude'' was posthumously adopted by the Huguenot movement and is sometimes seen as an early influence on modern anti-statist,

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

n and civil disobedience thought.

Life

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 Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

Parliament (assembly of lawyers). Orphaned at an early age, he was brought up by his uncle and namesake, the curate of Bouilbonnas, and received his law degree from the University of Orléans in 1553. His great and precocious ability earned La Boétie a royal appointment to the Bordeaux Parliament the following year, despite his being under the minimum age. There he pursued a distinguished career as judge and diplomatic negotiator until his untimely death from illness in 1563 at the age of thirty-two. La Boétie was also a distinguished poet and humanist, translating

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

and

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, and being closely connected with the leading young Pleiade group of poets, including Pierre de Ronsard, Jean Daurat and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. Murray Rothbard
"Ending Tyranny Without Violence"
La Boétie was favorable to the conciliation of

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and Protestantism; "warned of the dangerous and divisive consequences of permitting two

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

s, which could lead to two opposed states in the same country. The most he would have allowed the Protestants was the right to worship in private, and he pointed out their own intolerance of Catholics. His policy for religious peace was one of conciliation and concord through reforms in the church that would eventually persuade the Protestants to reunite with Catholicism". He served with Montaigne in the

'' parlement'' and is immortalized in Montaigne's

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

friendship Friendship is a Interpersonal relationship, relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. Althoug ...

. Some historians have questioned whether the two were lovers or not, but each played influential roles in each other's lives regardless.

Writings

La Boétie's writings include a few

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

s, 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 Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

has been abandoned once by society, which afterward stayed 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 obedience and domination, a relationship which would be later theorised by latter anarchist thinkers. By advocating a solution of simply refusing to support the tyrant, he became one of the earliest advocates of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. Murray N. Rothbard summarizes La Boétie's political philosophy as follows:

To him, the great mystery of politics was obedience to rulers. Why in the world do people agree to be looted and otherwise oppressed by government overlords? It is not just fear, Boetie explains in the ''Discourse on Voluntary Servitude'', for our consent is required. And that consent can be non-violently withdrawn.

It was once thought following Montaigne's claims that La Boétie wrote the essay in 1549 at the age of eighteen, but recent authorities argue that it is "likely that the ''Discourse'' was written in 1552 or 1553, at the age of twenty-two, while La Boétie was at the university". Some Montaigne scholars have argued that the essay was in fact the work of Montaigne himself. The essay was circulated privately and not published until 1576 after La Boétie's death. He died in Germignan near

in 1563. His last days are described in a long letter from Montaigne to his own father.

Influence

In the 20th century, many European anarchists began to cite La Boétie as an influence, including Gustav Landauer, Bart de Ligt and Simone Weil. Autonomist Marxist thinker John Holloway also cites him in his book '' Crack Capitalism'' in order to explain his idea of "breaking with capitalism".John Holloway. '' Crack Capitalism''. Pluto Press (2010). p. 6. . Gene Sharp, the leading theorist of nonviolent struggle, cites his work frequently in both '' The Politics of Nonviolent Action'' and '' From Dictatorship to Democracy''.

Gallery

File:LaBoétie001.jpg, ''Discours de la servitude volontaire'' File:La Boétie - Œuvres complètes Bonnefon 1892.djvu, ''Œuvres complètes'' (''Complete Works''), 1892 File:Sarlat - Maison de la Boétie - PA00082964 - 002.jpg, La Boétie's home at Sarlat File:Sarlat-medieval-city-by-night-13.jpg, Birthplace of La Boétie

Bibliography

* ''Œuvres complètes'', Editions William Blake & Co., 1991. . * ''Discours de la servitude volontaire'', Editions Mille et une nuits, 1997. . * ''Discours de la servitude volontaire'', Editions Flammarion, 1993. . * ''The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude'', translated by Harry Kurz and with an introduction by Murray Rothbard, Montrèal/New York/London: Black Rose Books, 1997. . * ''The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude'', translated by Harry Kurz and with an introduction by Murray Rothbard, Free Life Editions, 1975. .

References

External links

*
The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
', from The Ludwig von Mises Institute, Online Edition ( PDF). *
''Discours de la servitude volontaire'', translated and with an introduction about its reception
*
Text on Wikisource

*
Vertoog over de Vrijwillige Slavernij (pdf)

Etiennedelaboetie.net
– website dedicated to the works and life of Etienne de La Boétie *

Online-Exhibition (2012). * {{DEFAULTSORT:La Boetie, Etienne de 1530 births 1563 deaths People from Sarlat-la-Canéda Catholic philosophers French Roman Catholics Nonviolence advocates French political philosophers Renaissance humanists 16th-century French philosophers 16th-century French male writers French male writers Libertarian theorists Proto-anarchists 16th-century French poets French male poets College of Guienne alumni