The ''Discourse on Voluntary Servitude'' (french: Discours de la servitude volontaire) is an essay by

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

. The text was published clandestinely in 1577. The date of preparation of the ''Discourse on Voluntary Servitude'' is uncertain: according to recent studies it was composed by Étienne de La Boétie during his university education. According to his closest friend Michel de Montaigne, the speech was written when La Boétie was about 18 years old.Murray Rothbard, Introduction to The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de la Boétie, translated by Harry Kurz, New York: Free Life Editions, 1975, note 4, republished by the Mises Institute 2002: "Having remained long in manuscript, the actual date of writing the Discourse of Voluntary Servitude remains a matter of dispute. It seems clear, however, and has been so accepted by recent authorities, that Montaigne's published story that La Boétie wrote the Discourse at the age of eighteen or even of sixteen was incorrect. Montaigne's statement, as we shall see further below, was probably part of his later campaign to guard his dead friend's reputation by dissociating him from the revolutionary Huguenots who were claiming La Boétie's pamphlet for their own. Extreme youth tended to cast the Discourse in the light of a work so youthful that the radical content was hardly to be taken seriously as the views of the author. Internal evidence as well as the erudition expressed in the work make it likely that the Discourse was written in 1552 or 1553, at the age of twenty-two, while La Boétie was at the university. See Bonnefon, op. cit., pp. xxxvi-xxvii;"

Content

The essay argues that any

tyrant A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to re ...

remains in power while his subjects grant him that, therefore delegitimizing every form of power. The original freedom of men would be indeed abandoned by society which, once corrupted by the

habit A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

, would have preferred the servitude of the courtier to the freedom of the free man, who refuses to be submissive and to obey.

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 Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...

, 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

, Free Life Editions, 1975.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1576 books Essay collections French non-fiction books Philosophy books Philosophy essays

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