Aristotle Political Views Essay Research Paper AristotleBorn

Aristotle: Political Views Essay, Research Paper Aristotle 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, Aristotle’s idea of slavery is clearly defined. “The instruments of the household form its stock of property : they are animate and

inanimate : the slave is an animate instrument, intended (like all the instruments of the household) for action, and not for productions.” This distinction between action and production, is based upon the understanding that ‘production’ is a course in which a result is desired beyond the immediate act of doing. Where as, the simple act of completing a task is identified as ‘action’. Aristotle, who believed that life was action and not production theorized that slaves were instruments of life and were therefore needed to form a complete household. In fact Aristotle went as far as to say that a slave was comparable to a tame animal, with their only divergence in the fact that a slave could apprehend reason. For he concluded that a slave and animals only use was to supply

their owners with bodily help. At the end of the Theories of the Household, Aristotle explains how slaves are different from andy other types of people, in the sence that they are the only class who are born into their occupation and become property of their masters. In examining this relationship we find that he thought that while masters were the masters of the slaves, they still held a life other than that of being master; However, Aristotle believed that not only was the slave a slave to his master, but the slave had no other life or purpose than belonging. From this consideration we begin to understand Aristotle’s views on the relationship between Master and Slave. At the beginning of Chapter V of the Theory of the Household, the distinct role of master and slave is

defined. There is a principle of rule and subordin- action in nature at large : it appears especially in the realm of animate creation. 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 by another’s reason. It was Aristotle’s 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 man’s body was the representation of his inner self and that it was nature’s intentions to distinguish between those who were born to be freemen and those born to be slaves. However, we see that Aristotle have somewhat reservations upon his beliefs that all slaves corresponded to his mold. With such quotes as “But with nature , though she intends, does not always succeed in achieving a clear distinction between men born to