The renown of Étienne de La Boétie, a friend of Montaigne, is attached to a writing composed "in honor of liberty, against tyrants." How can one explain that an entire people can bend under the yoke of a single man without strength or prestige? To this question, the author replies that servitude is voluntary; it is the people who, by agreeing to submit, contravene what is most profound in human nature: liberty. Yet—and this is the scandal denounced by the author—nothing is simpler than freeing oneself from the tyrant. "Be resolved to serve no longer, and you are free," he asserts. Questioning the secret springs of domination, La Boétie constructs a major work for the history of political thought. DOSSIER - The desire for servitude, a paradox - The causes of the will to submit - Demystifying tyranny - Voluntary servitude: modern and contemporary extensions.
