Natural slavery, alternatively referred to as Aristotelian slavery, represents the philosophical argument articulated by Aristotle in his Politics that certain individuals are inherently suited for slavery by nature, while others become slaves solely through legal or conventional frameworks.
Aristotle's treatment of slavery
Within his Politics, Aristotle characterizes a natural slave as "anyone who, while being human, is by nature not his own but of someone else" and elaborates that "he is of someone else when, while being human, he is a piece of property; and a piece of property is a tool for action separate from its owner". From this foundation, Aristotle delineates natural slavery in two distinct phases: the inherent existence and characteristics of the natural slave, and the natural slave's role within society and relationship with their master. According to Aristotle's framework, natural slaves possess three primary attributes: they constitute property, serve as instruments for action, and belong to others.
In Book I of Politics, Aristotle examines whether slavery can be natural or whether all slavery contradicts natural law, and whether it proves beneficial for certain individuals to be enslaved. He concludes that "those who are as different [from other men] as the soul from the body or man from beast—and they are in this state if their work is the use of the body, and if this is the best that can come from them—are slaves by nature. For them it is better to be ruled in accordance with this sort of rule, if such is the case for the other things mentioned."
Aristotle argues that it proves disadvantageous for individuals who are not natural slaves to be held in bondage, contending that such conditions are maintained solely through force and generate mutual hostility.
In contemporary scholarship, Aristotle's work on slavery has attracted significant controversy and criticism. According to Darrell Dobbs, there exists a "general consensus that the formulation of Aristotle's account of slavery is riddled with inconsistency and incoherence"[6]. Other scholars have posited that the state of natural slavery may ultimately be alterable, given Aristotle's conception of nature as inherently dynamic.