A servidão voluntária, de La Boétie a Montaigne

This article analyzes the evolution of a new republican ideal in the context of the French religion wars in the 16th century. To do so, it focuses on two texts: La Boétie’s Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, whose essence is supposed to have been written around 1548, and Montaigne’s Essays, whose first edition dates from 1580. It demonstrates that Montaigne transfers La Boétie’s republican ideals to a new context, moving from a republican ethos inherited from Renaissance’s humanism to an ethos that can anachronistically be described as “liberal”.