Slavery for Plato and Aristotle Essay

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During this life, contemplation about life and the journey was also part of the plan toward the best life. Contemplation, for this type of philosophy, is an activity that refines and discovers virtue which, carried out continuously throughout one's life, allows one to reach a clear goal of self-actualization, and thus the potential within.

And it this is true of the body, how much more just that a similar distinction should exist in the soul? But the beauty of the body is seen, whereas the beauty of the soul is not seen. It is clear, then, that some men are by nature free, and others slaves, and that for these latter slavery is both expedient and right (V). In this humans have character, and what that character should be. Some are born to become and remain leaders -- the idea of the philosopher king or the people who can see beyond the objective into the subjective. Then there are those -- still good people, who "are wanting in spirit, and therefore they are always in a state of subjection and slavery" (VII). And while moderation in all things is the prudent path, vice and virtue, happiness and sadness, avarice and complete empathy -- are all examples of modes of behavior that may have adverse moral and ethical components. The modern, or doctrine of the mean, option, allows humans to be sensible and to account towards right action. This, for Aristotle, was the height of humanness -- our ability to contemplate such thoughts as this, debate upon them, and yet societally, find a way to integrate them. Slaves live according to their own rule, their own salvation; they can be no other way.

But is there any one thus intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such a condition is expedient and right, or rather is not all slavery a violation of nature? There is no difficulty in answering this question, on grounds both of reason and fact. 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 (V).

In this, for both Plato and Aristotle, the idea of being successful person is tied up not on the label of slavery, but the way Thrasymachus, for instance, looks "at politics from the point-of-view of the man, who wants to live well and has understood the nature of justice…" and who will then bow under appropriate authority and revolt when necessary.

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Aristotle finds that it is human nature itself that allows one to be likened to an underclass of slaves. Thrasymachus' challenges are challenging to Platonian order -- the phases and types of government. However, it is the anti-resolution against justice that juxtaposes the Aristotelian concept of slavery as a point-of-view for those capable and in power, and the Platonian order of society. This view holds that many "mold the best and most powerful among us… and with charms and incantations we subdue them into slavery, telling them that one is supposed to get no more than his fair share" (483s-484a). For both Aristotle and Plato, the natural order of the universe is not, in fact, based on egalitarianism, but in the true nature of the strong and the weak, with the strong needing to rule the weak in order for society to continue.

REFERENCES

Aristotle. Politics. Electronic. 2007. Electronic. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com / books?id=sqpBmQzQnqwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=aristotle+politics&source=bl&ots=D98_xavIUk&sig=bawwWa4U2SrMdAdR8KFn6pRM4nI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ccuFUNa_EajyigKd_IDICQ&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=slavery&f=false

Plato. The Republic in Translation. (2004). Electronic. Retrieved from: http://ablemedia.com / ctcweb/consortium/gormanteachingplato.html

Westerman, W. Ancient Slavery. In E.R. Seligman, ed. Encyclopedia of the Social

Sciences. 2004. Electronic. Retrieved from: http://www.ditext.com/moral/slavery.html.....

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