Politics   

There is no difficulty in answering this question, on grounds both of
reason and of fact. For that some should rule and others be ruled is a
thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth,
some are marked out for subjection, others for rule.
And there are many kinds both of rulers and subjects (and that rule is
the better which is exercised over better subjects- for example, to
rule over men is better than to rule over wild beasts; for the work is
better which is executed by better workmen, and where one man rules
and another is ruled, they may be said to have a work); for in all
things which form a composite whole and which are made up of parts,
whether continuous or discrete, a distinction between the ruling and
the subject element comes to fight. Such a duality exists in living
creatures, but not in them only; it originates in the constitution of
the universe; even in things which have no life there is a ruling
principle, as in a musical mode. But we are wandering from the
subject. We will therefore restrict ourselves to the living creature,
which, in the first place, consists of soul and body: and of these
two, the one is by nature the ruler, and the other the subject. But
then we must look for the intentions of nature in things which retain
their nature, and not in things which are corrupted. And therefore we
must study the man who is in the most perfect state both of body and
soul, for in him we shall see the true relation of the two; although
in bad or corrupted natures the body will often appear to rule over
the soul, because they are in an evil and unnatural condition. At all
events we may firstly observe in living creatures both a despotical
and a constitutional rule; for the soul rules the body with a
despotical rule, whereas the intellect rules the appetites with a
constitutional and royal rule. And it is clear that the rule of the
soul over the body, and of the mind and the rational element over the
passionate, is natural and expedient; whereas the equality of the two
or the rule of the inferior is always hurtful. The same holds good of
animals in relation to men; for tame animals have a better nature than
wild, and all tame animals are better off when they are ruled by man;
for then they are preserved. Again, the male is by nature superior,
and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled;
this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.
Where then there is such a difference as that between soul and body,
or between men and animals (as in the case of those whose business is
to use their body, and who can do nothing better), the lower sort are
by nature slaves, and it is better for them as for all inferiors that
they should be under the rule of a master. For he who can be, and
therefore is, another's and he who participates in rational principle
enough to apprehend, but not to have, such a principle, is a slave by
nature. Whereas the lower animals cannot even apprehend a principle;
they obey their instincts. And indeed the use made of slaves and of
tame animals is not very different; for both with their bodies
minister to the needs of life. Nature would like to distinguish
between the bodies of freemen and slaves, making the one strong for
servile labor, the other upright, and although useless for such
services, useful for political life in the arts both of war and peace.
But the opposite often happens- that some have the souls and others
have the bodies of freemen. And doubtless if men differed from one
another in the mere forms of their bodies as much as the statues of
the Gods do from men, all would acknowledge that the inferior class
should be slaves of the superior. And if this is true of the body, how
much more just that a similar distinction should exist in the soul?
but the beauty of the body is seen, whereas the beauty of the soul is
not seen. It is clear, then, that some men are by nature free, and
others slaves, and that for these latter slavery is both expedient and
right.
Part VI
But that those who take the opposite view have in a certain way right
on their side, may be easily seen. For the words slavery and slave are
used in two senses. There is a slave or slavery by law as well as by