Slavery

Reading through this section I was very interested in Aristotle's outlook on slavery. It seems so harsh and abrupt, the idea that some men are just born slaves and some are born to be the masters. It's an extremely opposite viewpoint than any American would hold today, but I found it to be quite interesting to at least think about. In no way did I agree with the fundamental point he made, however I do think there is some psychological truth to be found in the statement that, "It is clear, then, that some men are by nature free, and others slave..", just not to the extreme that Aristotle took it.

Now, in no way am I promoting slavery, all men are created equal; however, I do think that we are all born with certain tendencies to be by nature, either a leader or follower. Most of the time we are not given a choice, our natural personality which we are born with really dictates which one of these extremes we will lean toward being. As a result, our positions in society are marked by this. One who is a natural leader, will in no way be content being the library receptionist or a Elementary school lunch lady their whole life, just as one who is a natural follower would be terrified at the thought of being the President of a thriving business corporation or being a public political figure. So in an essence I think Aristotle was right to say that some are born slaves and some masters, but I also feel unlike Aristotle, that this should be left up to each individual to discern for themselves and not be left up to society to dictate.

Also, I think the true point that Aristotle was trying to make in this writing, was that should "natural" slaves suddenly become masters in society, they would ruin society because they didn't know how to be masters. Because it was against their nature and they would ruin the rest of society around them by trying to be something they were in fact not. Although, I can see the logic behind this reasoning I again feel, this should have been something that was decided by the individual and not dictated for them by society.

Overall I found it to be very interesting reading some of the logic behind the starting of Slavery in this world. Although, I'm not in agreement with the issue it was still interesting for me to read and think about the logical backings behind it.