Belgarion wrote on Oct 28
th, 2021 at 8:25pm:
Nothing wrong with black people...Everyone should own a few.
To civilise them, don't forget.
Aristotle
The great Greek philosopher, Aristotle, was one of the first. He thought that slavery was a natural thing and that human beings came in two types - slaves and non-slaves.
For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule...
Some people, he said, were born natural slaves and ought to be slaves under any circumstances. Other people were born to rule these slaves, could use these slaves as they pleased and could treat them as property.
Natural slaves were slaves because their souls weren't complete - they lacked certain qualities, such as the ability to think properly, and so they needed to have masters to tell them what to do.
It's clear that Aristotle thinks that slavery was good for those who were born natural slaves, as without masters they wouldn't have known how to run their lives.
In fact Aristotle seems to have thought that slaves were 'living tools' rather like domestic animals, fit only for physical labour.
And indeed the use made of slaves and of tame animals is not very different; for both with their bodies minister to the needs of life.
Slaves were not totally incapable of thought, but they only needed minimal amount of rational ability; just enough to understand and carry out their duties.
Similarly, slaves were not devoid of 'virtue', but once again, they only needed just enough to carry out their duties. But that 'virtue' was enough for them to be treated as human beings.
Aristotle doesn't provide any sensible practical method of recognising natural slaves, and without that it's inevitable that some people will be made slaves who should not be.
Aristotle also had a category of 'legal slaves'; they weren't natural slaves but through bad luck - perhaps being taken prisoner in war - they just happened to be slaves at a particular time.
Aristotle argued that if the world was just, the legal slaves would be freed, and if any natural slaves were by chance free, they should be made slaves.