Contributing literature Stultitiae Laus, 1509 (The Praise of Folly, Internet History Sourcebooks) De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio, 1524 Étienne de La Boétie Étienne de La Boétie (France, 1530–1563) was a French writer, magistrate and political theorist. According to Etienne the chief question of political philosophy was the question of how people come to accept the will of tyrants. Contributing literature Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, 1577 Hugo Grotius Hugo Grotius (Netherlands 1583–1645) Contributing literature Mare Liberum, 1606 De jure belli ac pacis, 1625 Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes (England, 1588–1679) theorized that government is the result of individual actions and human traits, and that it was motivated primarily by "interest", a term which would become crucial in the development of a liberal theory of government and political economy, since it is the foundation of the idea that individuals can be self-governing and self-regulating. His work Leviathan, did not advocate this viewpoint, but instead that only a strong government could restrain unchecked interest: it did, however, advance a proto-liberal position in arguing for an inalienable "right of nature," the right to defend oneself, even against the state. Though his own ideological position is open to debate, his work influenced Locke, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and many other liberals, leading Strauss to identify Hobbes as the . Contributing literature: Leviathan, 1651 (Theologico-Political Treatise) Baruch Spinoza Baruch Spinoza (Netherlands, 1632–1677) is in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and Tractatus Politicus a proto-liberal defending the value of separation of church and state as well as forms of democracy. In the first mentioned book, Spinoza expresses an early criticism of religious intolerance and a defense of secular government. Spinoza was a thoroughgoing determinist who held that absolutely everything that happens occurs through the operation of necessity. For him, even human behaviour is fully determined, freedom being our capacity to know we are determined and to understand why we act as we do. So freedom is not the possibility to say "no" to what happens to us but the possibility to say "yes" and fully understand why things should necessarily happen that way. Contributing literature: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, 1670 (Theologico-Political Treatise, Theologico-Political Treatise – Part 1) Tractatus Politicus, 1677 (Political Treatise) From Locke to Mill John Locke John Locke's (England, 1632–1704) notion that a "government with the consent of the governed" and man's natural rights—life, liberty, and estate (property) as well on tolerance, as laid down in A letter concerning toleration