Aristotle on Slavery

When trying to figure out the function of a human being, Aristotle says, "the remaining possibility, then, is some sort of life of action of the [part of the soul] that has reason. One [part] of it has reason as obeying reason; the other has it as itself having reason and thinking" (118). This quotation explains that there are two kinds of people: the people who can reason for themselves, and people who can only be habituated in obedience of reason. These citizens cannot reason for themselves, they can only obey reason. Since they obey, they are best suited to be slaves because obeying…