Aristotle on Natural Slavery

Author: Heath, Malcolm¹

Source: Phronesis: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy, Volume 53, Number 3, 2008 , pp. 243-270(28)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

Aristotle's claim that natural slaves do not possess autonomous rationality (Pol. 1.5, 1254b20-23) cannot plausibly be interpreted in an unrestricted sense, since this would conflict with what Aristotle knew about non-Greek societies. Aristotle's argument requires only a lack of autonomous practical rationality. An impairment of the capacity for integrated practical deliberation, resulting from an environmentally induced excess or deficiency in thumos (Pol. 7.7, 1327b18-31), would be sufficient to make natural slaves incapable of eudaimonia without being obtrusively implausible relative to what Aristotle is likely to have believed about non-Greeks. Since Aristotle seems to have believed that the existence of people who can be enslaved without injustice is a hypothetical necessity, if those capable of eudaimonia are to achieve it, the existence of natural slaves has implications for our understanding of Aristotle's natural teleology.

Keywords: ARISTOTLE; SLAVERY; DELIBERATION; THUMOS; TELEOLOGY

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1163/156852808X307070

Affiliations: 1: Department of Classics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK;, Email: m.f.heath@leeds.ac.uk

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