Abstract
ARISTOTLE AND SLAVERY
Abstract: Aristotle is a philosopher who has marked the science of world with his controversial ideas more than 2000 years. The philosopher, who Dante called as “the Master of Sciences” and Thomas Aquinas named as “Philosophe”, was the “First Teacher” (Muallim-i evvel) according to Islamic philosophers. Aristotle, I name him as “the Lord of Sciences”, regards that slavery is natural and innate. According to Aristotle, those who use their body for physical deeds and are not accepted to accomplish better things are slave by nature. The nature has created free man superior with regards to his virtues. Those who are superior with regards to the virtues have abilities to rule and guide. However, slaves act and work in accordance with the orders which they take from their masters. The main dynamic which is enactor for physical force of the slave is the master’s ruling and guiding abilities. Without the masters guidance the slaves can’t fulfill anything. In the continuance of daily life of the free man and citizens, the slaves provide a contribution that match with the one that comes from domestic animals. Just as domestic animals serves free man by obeying, the slaves do the same thing too. The slaves which has deprived of the reasoning ability live dependent to free man who possesses reasoning ability. The slaves don’t belong to themselves because of their natures, but they belong to another person means that they are alive properties. According to Aristotle there are two categories of slavery: the natural and the legitimate ones. The natural slavery is different from the legitimate one, because it has not been emerged as a result of inequality in social and/or class statues differences which mean that it is a matter of human being nature and genesis.
Keywords
Aristotle, Slavery, Genesis, Human Nature
