Power, Consent, and the Role of the Multitude in Étienne de La Boétie’s De la servitude volontaire

Abstract

La Boétie’s De la servitude volontaire has traditionally been read as an archetypal piece of French humanist writing. In contrast, this article argues that medieval, scholastic ideas underpin De la servitude volontaire. There are two components to this argument: the first is the influence of La Boétie’s training in civil law at the Université d’Orléans on his political ideas, where there is clear evidence that aspects of medieval jurisprudence underpinned an argument that is otherwise presented in the stylish prose of French humanism. The second is La Boétie’s indebtedness to aspects of the Aristotelian, scholastic tradition, in which his use of anti-democratic commentaries on Aristotle’s Politics forms the basis of a critique of republican readings of De la servitude volontaire.