Abstract:

Although Aristotle’s theory of good life takes an important place in his political theory, it is not examined thoroughly in relation to his account of slavery. A close reading of this account shows us that it plays a significant role in his theory of city-state funding the theoretical life. In Politics, he defends natural slavery without force as just and institutionally necessary to provide a foundation for the theoretical life as the best life. The basic point of the justifications in this defense is “self-sufficiency”. Accordingly, when one is self-sufficient in deliberation and in ruling oneself then one is free and complete, if not then one is born to be ruled as a slave and perhaps not “a complete human being”. Hence, this article offers a critical and close reading of Aristotle’s account by focusing on the relation of “self-sufficiency” first with good life, second with the political life, and third with slavery and freedom. Therefore, we see that there is no presupposed idea of natural slavery in Aristotle, rather it is developed after slavery is defended as institutionally necessary for the city-state. Furthermore, he develops the idea that there exist peoples, who lack self-sufficiency and fit slavery “naturally” according to their ethnic character, also after defending that slavery is institutionally necessary. After all, the ethnic distinctions in Aristotle’s account might not derive from a position of biologically essentialist racism, but from a type that relies on a normative understanding of human being, which requires self-sufficiency for the human being to become complete.

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