Figure 1.--Slavery was very important in acient Greece and many see this as a major failing. Usually unmentined us the facrt that Greece is the first socity we know of that considered the ethics of enslving others. This frieze fragment depicts a slave boy pouring wine for his master. It may have been a votive offering. It was found in the Athens area (4th century BC). Aristotle argued that there are people that are by nature slave and it is better for them to be enslaved. He failed to deal with the fact that slvery spanned th generations. It might be thoughtvthat this boy's mother was suited for slavery, but was this really an inherited trait? We are left wondering when viewing depictions like this if the boy's nudity is an artistic convention or whether this was how house hold servant commonly worke. Areader writes, "Nudity was a common aesthetic element in ancient Greek art, but in ancient Greece public male nudity was not a problem, especially for boys and this would have been especially the case of slave boys.

All too many modern historians are prone to judge ancient societies by our modern stndards. And quite a number focus on slavery rather than the Greek invention of freedom. The Greeks did not invent slavery nor did Greek democracy, but it is absoliutely true that slavery was an important part of Greek society and the economy, actully more important than in most other ancient sicieties wher the ecomomies were primarly based on landless peasantry. The existence of freedom and slavery were indeed a fact of life in ancient Greece. For the Greeks it was not as strange ase now see it. For them, freedoim meant the ability to enslave others. While it is true tha slavery was important in Greece, the Greeks also appear to have been the first people to have considered the ethical basis of slavery, at least the firsr people we know of that have thoufgt deeply on the issue. We may not like the conclusions tht important Greek thinkes like Aristotle arrived at, but the fact that it was a topic being considered is important to mention. The central contribution of the Greeks was applying reason to matters of human concern and this was one of the many issues addressed.

One of the most important essays on this topic was pennd by Aristotle. He concluded that there are people that are by nature slave and it is better for them to be enslaved. He writes, "But whether any person is such by nature, and whether it is advantageous and just for any one to be a slave or no, or whether all slavery is contrary to nature, shall be considered hereafter; not that it is difficult to determine it upon general principles, or to understand it from matters of fact; for that some should govern, and others be governed, is not only necessary but useful, and from the hour of their birth some are marked out for those purposes, and others for the other, and there are many species of both sorts. And the better those are who are governed the better also is the government, as for instance of man, rather than the brute creation: for the more excellent the materials are with which the work is finished, the more excellent certainly is the work; and wherever there is a governor and a governed, there certainly is some work produced; for whatsoever is composed of many parts, which jointly become one, whether conjunct or separate, evidently show the marks of governing and governed; and this is true of every living thing in all nature; nay, even in some things which partake not of life, as in music; but this probably would be a disquisition too foreign to our present purpose. Every living thing in the first place is composed of soul and body, of these the one is by nature the governor, the other the governed; now if we would know what is natural, we ought to search for it in those subjects in which nature appears most perfect, and not in those which are corrupted; we should therefore examine into a man who is most perfectly formed both in soul and body, in whom this is evident, for in the depraved and vicious the body seems to rule rather than the soul, on account of their being corrupt and contrary to nature. We may then, as we affirm, perceive in an animal the first principles of herile and political government; for the soul governs the body as the master governs his slave; the mind governs the appetite with a political or a kingly power, which shows that it is both natural and advantageous that the body should be governed by the soul, and the pathetic part by the mind, and that part which is possessed of reason; but to have no ruling power, or an improper one, is hurtful to all; and this holds true not only of man, but of other animals also, for tame animals are naturally better than wild ones, and it is advantageous that both should be under subjection to man; for this is productive of their common safety: so is it naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind. Those men therefore who are as much inferior to others as the body is to the soul, are to be thus disposed of, as the proper use of them is their bodies, in which their excellence consists; and if what I have said be true, they are slaves by nature, and it is advantageous to them to be always under government. He then is by nature formed a slave who is qualified to become the chattel of another person, and on that account is so, and who has just reason enough to know that there is such a faculty, without being indued with the use of it; for other animals have no perception of reason, but are entirely guided by appetite, and indeed they vary very little in their use from each other; for the advantage which we receive, both from slaves and tame animals, arises from their bodily strength administering to our necessities; for it is the intention of nature to make the bodies of slaves and freemen different from each other, that the one should be robust for their necessary purposes, the others erect, useless indeed for what slaves are employed in, but fit for civil life, which is divided into the duties of war and peace; though these rules do not always take place, for slaves have sometimes the bodies of freemen, sometimes the souls; if then it is evident that if some bodies are as much more excellent than others as the statues of the gods excel the human form, every one will allow that the inferior ought to be slaves to the superior; and if this is true with respect to the body, it is still juster to determine in the same manner, when we consider the soul; though it is not so easy to perceive the beauty of the soul as it is of the body. Since then some men are slaves by nature, and others are freemen, it is clear that where slavery is advantageous to any one, then it is just to make him a slave." [Aristotle]

Aristotle leaves out the fact that Greek slaves came from all over the aancient world as well as from the Greece itself. Thus it is difficult to identify a population prone to slavery. And if he wastakig about individuls rather than proples, the fact that slvery spanned the generations make it difficult to reach is conclusion unless he is saying that prpopensity vfor slavery is hereditary. The importance of his essay, however, is that Aristole thought that slavery needed to be justified. This is the first time we have noted sych an ffort. It is also interestng to note that written more than 2,000 years ago, his argument is esentially the same as was being mafe in the 19th century before the American Civil War.

Sources

Aristotle. Politics, Book 1, chapter 5.

Created: 9:14 AM 6/3/2015
Last updated: 9:14 AM 6/3/2015