If one took Aristotle’s
perspective, who would be considered a ‘slave’ in our society?
In Aristotle’s ideal
society, the only citizens are heads of the household, the primary economic
unit in the polis. Slaves fall within this economic unit and, lacking
intellectual capacity, can only contribute their labor and physical bodies to
society. Aristotle’s view is less of a moral justification than a pragmatic
justification for slavery—it is less slavery than what we would today consider
wage labor, or other low-skill jobs held principally by people in the lower
class (people who don’t own the means of production, but instead work for those
who do).
No comments:
Post a Comment