“From the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjecon, others for rule” (Aristotle, Polics, Bk 1, ch. 5). Crically assess whether Aristotle’s view on slavery is tenable. Word count- 3310 Introducon- Aristotle is considered to be among the greatest philosophers; his philosophy surrounding morality and polics sll holds significant influence today (Lowe, 2019). However, Aristotle’s view on slavery is a controversial topic that has caused discussions and debates for centuries. In Aristotle's work "Polics", he argues that it is not unjust to enslave human beings as they may already be a slave by nature (Heath, 2008). Aristotle puts forward the belief that some humans are inferior to others in regard to their physical aributes and raonal ability, and therefore they are best equipped to serve the needs of others. Aristotle’s percepon is that nature was intended to work this way, and therefore as a consequence of their natural abilies, some people/races are born to be leaders while some are born to be ruled, to be slaves. There is no doubt that Aristotle’s views on slavery are problemac within the modern world, and according to (Heath, 2008), this belief has found lile support from Aristotelian specialists. For example (Schofield, 2005, p91) refers to Aristotle’s views on slavery as “morally repugnant” and an embarrassment to people who hold his philosophy in esteem (McDowell, 1995) also labelled it as an embarrassing feature lastly (Cambiano, 1987) claimed it'd inflicted great embarrassment upon the people who admire the work of Aristotle. The topic sll holds significance today, as Aristotle’s argument throughout history has been adopted by those who wish to jusfy slavery or ethnic intellectual superiority and, in some cases, been the backbone of people’s arguments who have commied some of the worst crimes against humanity. For example (Davis, 2006) highlights how slave owners in America used Aristotle’s argument to support their own posion; slavery could be jusfied because racist whites believed black people were of lesser intellectual and raonal ability. Obviously, we know this not to be true. So with the theory being easily dismissible, we can assume that Aristotle’s views on slavery are not tenable, especially in the modern world. However, the aim of this essay isn’t to invest in Aristotle’s idea and conclude whether or not it's morally sound but actually to crique and make sense of it. Natural slavery- Aristotle’s concept of natural slavery arose from his concern with diversifying polical authority (Heath, 2008). Book 1 of Polics, sees him develop his theory with the intent to promote the morality of owning slaves and advocate for the use of slavery (Smith, 1983). At the core of Aristotle’s defence of slavery is the concept that society's normalies should reflect what is natural and, therefore, it would be just (Lowe, 2019). The way Aristotle begins to jusfy slavery is through his interpretaon of human reasoning. According to (Heath, 2008), we know that Aristotle determines reason as an integral part of being a human and does except that slaves have a share in reason. However, despite this, Aristotle goes on to explain a natural slave ‘shares in reason to the extent of understanding it, but does not have it himself’ (Pol, 1254b20-23). The claim Aristotle is making is that humans hold the ability to reason, which allows individuals to regulate their impulses and direct their lives. These individuals he defines as free people, but when an individual lacks the ability to reason and raonalise themselves, they need direcon from those who can (Lowe, 2019). Therefore, Aristotle believes it is jusfied for these people to be owned by others, and correspondingly he believes it will even benefit the slave as they would make poor choices if leſt on their own. To support this view, he states: