Tentative Response: Aristotle

One of the first things Aristotle does in regards to slavery and enslaved people (who he refers to as "slaves") is separate them from his definition of humanity. He argues at length about why enslaved people should be considered property, rather than human beings, and even makes a distinction between "females" (Part II) and "slaves", demonstrating that he does not consider women who are enslaved to be human beings. Enslaved people are central to his understanding of a community and a body of politics; their relationships to their "masters" are the first primary relationship that he mentions. As it stands to Aristotle, enslaved people are possessions insofar as they are "[instruments] of action, separable from the possessor" (Part IV). In the next part, Part V, he details his understanding that people of a lower stature of spirit and body are, by nature, meant to serve as slaves. He argues that, in these cases, "slavery is both expedient and right" (Part V).

Knowing all of this, it's really difficult for me to take Aristotle's perspective at all. From my perspective, especially thinking of the teachings of Black teachers and authors, there's a lot to be said about the term at use "slave"; as Aristotle himself says, "slave" is used to denote a piece of property, not a person, and "slavery" is used to denote a particular relationship between property and its owner, not between two people. I think it might be more helpful and accurate to ask who could be considered "enslaved" in our society today, which denotes personhood rather than property, and which is a really charged and difficult question to respond to, when the United States and Columbia University have very real, specific, and important relationships to slavery, having benefited greatly from the practice. I cannot claim a personal present or historical relationship to communities that have been enslaved, but it brings to mind reading about how practices of slavery, as lived by real people in our histories, are so specific, violent, and particular, that it cannot really be compared to any other experience.