Why did Aristotle defend slavery in the first place?
Actually, he defended slavery by nature wherein this person cannot exercise reason on his own and he's the one who makes himself available to the beck and call of another person.
On the other hand, slavery by convention is imposed by society and is backed-up by laws. It's as if you don;' have a choice.
A slave is someone who is an animate article of property and a part of a household. He has a function in order to make the household run. A slave by nature is someone who cannot stand alone and who needs someone to decide for himself.
A modern-day slave in a high school setting is the "lacky" of the clique --- the one who follows orders without question or any hesitation. He always asks, "What are we going to do today?" Or sometimes you'd ask him, "What do you want to do?" Then he will reply, "I don't know. What do you want to do anyway?" His life cannot revolve without other people directing it.
So think, does your description fits this person? If yes, then you're a slave by nature too!
Sometimes we do the modern-day slave thing because of a momentary lack of will caused by physical or mental fatigue.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe we're having an inborn consideration for this kind of stuff, thinking that imposing our picks on other people without considering what the others want would be rude.
Still we couldn't hide the fact that we are slaves one way or another. We're slaves to social conventions and etiquette and sometimes a slave to academic expectations and peer pressure.
Cheers.
I operate on the definition of a slave as a person stripped off with the capability to decide without his permission. In this case, regaining your capability to decide is outside of your control.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Niko here that we are slaves when as much as we want to deviate from the norm, we cannot.
The example on the modern-day slave is something that needs further clarification. At least on this instance, you gave your decision-making capability to someone but you can always revoke it if you choose to do so.
I think that a slave is someone who does not have the freedom to choose or decide for his own. But the modern day slave, as stated is one who cannot decide for themselves.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are in one way or another a modern day slave. But this may only be because we do not immediately have a ready answer for the question, therefore we just ask the other person what they want. If this makes one a modern day slave, then I think we all are slaves.
Actually in a theist view, we're can be considered slaves if being a slave means being under a power of a being on a higher position than you. Slaves are under their masters, their masters are under the so-called leaders, the leaders are under the Deities or Divine Beings. thus only Gods weren't slaves. Aristotle being an Ancient Athenian and generalizing that most of the Athenians were religious, could also have seen this.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing. As always.
that's we not we're, sorry :D.
ReplyDeleteCheers.