Aristotles View of Slavery Essay - 1285 Words

Born in the year of 384 B.C. Aristotle was seen as conventional for his time, for he regarded slavery as a natural course of nature and believed that certain people were born to be slaves due to the fact that their soul lacked the rational part that should rule in a human being; However in certain circumstances it is evident that Aristotle did not believe that all men who were slaves were meant to be slaves. In his book Politics, Aristotle begins with the Theory of The Household, and it is here that the majority of his views upon slavery are found. With the beginning of Chapter IV, Aristotles idea of slavery is clearly defined. The instruments of the household form its stock of property : they are animate and†¦show more content†¦By virtue of that principle, the soul rules the body; and by virtue of it the master, who possesses the rational faculty of the soul, rules the slave, who possesses only bodily powers and the faculty of understanding the directions given b y anothers reason. It was Aristotles views on the human soul that gave grounds to his arguments for slavery. It was his beliefs that the soul was divided into two parts, being the rational faculty and the capacity for obeying. Aristotle postulated that a freeman was innately born with the rational faculty while A slave is entirely without the faculty of deliberation. And with his views he felt as though it was necessary for there to be a natural ruling order, whereas, the body was ruled by the soul, and those with the natural rational faculty within their soul should rule others without. This relationship, Aristotle found to be an essential element in his idea of master and slave being two parts forming one common entity. It was his belief that a mans body was the representation of his inner self and that it was natures intentions to distinguish between those who were born to be freemen and those born to be slaves. 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