aristotle and locke on slavery essays

aristotle and locke on slavery essays Slavery is an issue that has plagued many societies over the history of the world. Slavery has existed on almost every continent, and has affected millions of peoples lives. The idea and philosophy behind slavery is an issue that almost every great political scientist and philosopher has dealt with in discussing actual and theoretical societies. Aristotle is one of the most famous philosophers who spends a great deal of time and effort dealing with the issue of slavery. His ideas of slavery are quite controversial, especially in todays society, due to his belief that people are naturally slaves or masters, based on deductive faculty(Aristotle, 1260a12). Another type of slavery that existed due to natural birth was the enslavement of African Americans in the U.S., a period of time from which this country still suffers. John Lockes discussion of slavery is much more realistic, as well as socially acceptable. Locke believes that slavery will exist only in a state of war, in which a conqueror defeats an unjust individual, and in doing so owns that persons life. However, instead of killing the conquered, the conqueror makes the conquered a slave, thus creating the idea of slavery. This premise is based on a state of war, which is the worst possible state according to Locke. Therefore, slavery is only possible in the worst-case situation. One must take into consideration the fact that Aristotles theory on slavery was written in early ancient Greece, in which divisions among people based on class and wealth were commonplace. Locke, on the other hand, wrote in the late 1600s in England after the Glorious Revolution, and wrote in opposition to authoritarianism. This distinction between contexts of Aristotle and Locke can be clearly seen in their stances on acceptable and unjust slavery. Aristotle begins his discussion on slavery in Book I of The Politics by first re-establishing th...