Identity and obedience of zoon politikon

pages: 325-333

Abstract

This article aims to take under consideration the relationship between identity and political obedience. First, it explains the famous encouragement of De la Boétie: it is sufficient to decide to quit serving to be instantly free. Nevertheless, man often renounces his freedom in favor of obeying authority. Why does it happen? At the bottom of this surrender there is an “animal” factor: as Alexandre Kojève has shown, in the master-slave dialectic the first is able to dominate the animal within himself, while the servant has not the same capability and doesn’t want to accept the risk of death. Finally, it is with respect to the latter that everyone decides for himself, which opens the possibility for a full and actual identity through the appropriation of his own mortality. Keywords: identity, obedience, Authority, Animal, master, servant, death