Argument
Natural slavery
Overview
Natural slavery (or Aristotelian slavery) is the argument set forth in Aristotle's Politics that some people are slaves by nature, while others are slaves solely by law or convention.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Since then some men are slaves by nature, and others are freemen, it is clear that where slavery is advantageous to any one, then it is just to make him a slave.
Aristotle, Politics
The author is tied to Natural slavery in the knowledge graph.
Thus, Philo tells us, the Emperor Caligula reasoned, concluding equally well either that kings were gods, or that men were beasts. The reasoning of Caligula agrees with that of Hobbes and Grotius. Aristotle, before any of them, had said that men are by no means equal naturally, but that some are born for slavery, and others for dominion. Aristotle was right; but he took the effect for the cause. Nothing can be more…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
Close in meaning to Natural slavery; the term itself is not named.
To Aristotle slavery was rooted in aboriginal human nature. Native distinctions of quality exist such that some persons are by nature gifted with power to plan, command and supervise, and others possess merely capacity to obey and execute. Hence slavery is natural and inevitable. There is error in supposing that because domestic and chattel slavery has been legally abolished, therefore slavery as conceived by…
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct
Close in meaning to Natural slavery; the term itself is not named.
Related ideas
- Politics (Aristotle)
- Law
- Stoicism
- Aristotle
- Nature (philosophy)
- Bartolomé de las Casas
- Convention (norm)
- Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda
Place in the tradition
Part of School of Salamanca.