艾蒂安·德·拉博埃西

艾蒂安·德·拉博埃西（法语：Étienne de La Boétie，法语发音：[etjɛn də la bɔesi] ；1530年11月1日—1563年8月18日），法国作家，法国政治哲学的奠基人、反暴君论的重要代表人物。是米歇尔·德·蒙田最亲密的好友。

他出身良好，父亲是佩里戈尔总督的助理。拉博埃西幼失怙恃，早年跟一位当神父的叔叔学习，之后进了奥尔良大学，主修法律。他的老师之一是后来为新教信仰而殉道的迪布尔。1548年，波尔多的抗盐税暴乱遭到镇压，一时民怨沸腾，撰有《论自愿为奴》，该文也是启蒙主义所宣扬的自由、平等、博爱等观念的先声。

Étienne or Estienne de La Boétie (French: [etjɛn d(ə) la bɔesi] , also [bwati] or [bɔeti]; Occitan: Esteve de La Boetiá; 1 November 1530 – 18 August 1563) was a French magistrate, classicist, writer, poet and political theorist, best remembered for his relationship with essayist Michel de Montaigne. 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, utopian 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 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 and Plutarch, and being closely connected with the leading young Pleiade group of poets, including Pierre de Ronsard, Jean Daurat and Jean-Antoine de Baïf.

La Boétie was favorable to the conciliation of Catholicism and Protestantism; "warned of the dangerous and divisive consequences of permitting two religions, 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 Bordeaux parlement and is immortalized in Montaigne's essay on friendship. 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 sonnets, translations from the classics and an essay attacking 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 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.