Chapter Schiavitù, natura, barbarie e guerra nella Politica di Aristotele

Abstract

Are all the barbarians slaves by nature according to Aristotle? This contribution intends to answer this question, in the awareness that the theme of natural slavery is one of the most complex and tormented in Aristotelian philosophy. Through the analysis of some significant passages of the Politics, the article aims to show that for Aristotle natural slavery is not linked to ethnic categories, but to ethics one, therefore it does not necessarily and exclusively concern the barbarians. For this reason, the paper argues that Aristotelian thought seems to deviate, in a critical key, from the dominant ideology in the Greece of its time.