Les gens bien nés et les « naturels privileges » Enjeux diffus d’une publication restreinte

Starting with La Boétie’s mention of “natural privileges”, Mawy Bouchard seeks to define the “nobility” of those who resist servitude : she articulates two significations of endurance, one valiant and one cowardly, which are threaded throughout the Discours. The latter seems to construct itself around the opposition between a faculty of endurance which is alone able to preserve natural liberties and a “cowardly endurance”, a synonym of voluntary servitude.