350, Politics, Aristotle.

Book I


Chapter 2

...he that can by his intelligence foresee things needed is by nature ruler and master, while he whose bodily strength enables him to perform them is by nature a slave, one of those who are ruled.

...as the poets say, 'It is proper that Hellenes should rule over barbarians,' meaning that barbarian and slave are by nature identical.

...man is by nature a political animal; it his nature to live in a state.

As man is the best of all animals when he has reached his full development, so he is worst of all when divorced from law and morals. Wickedness armed is hardest to deal with; and though man while keeping his weapons can remain disposed to understanding and virtue, it is all too easy for him to use them for the opposite purposes. Hence man without goodness is the most savage, the most unrighteous, and the worst in regard to sexual licence and gluttony.

Chapter 3

[The economics of the household] can be subdivided so as to correspond to the parts of which a complete household is made up, namely, the free and the slaves;... the smallest division of a household into parts gives three pairs-- master and slave, husband and wife, father and children. And so we must ask ourselves what is, and what ought to be, each one of these three relationships.

Chapter 4

Tools may be animate as well as inanimate;... the worker in a craft is, from the point of view of the craft, one of its tools. [...] ...a slave... is a tool worth many tools. [...] ... a slave is not only his master's slave but wholly his master's property... . ...the nature and function of the slave: any human being that by nature belongs not to himself but to another is by nature a slave; and a human being belongs to another whenever he is a piece of human property, that is a tool or instrument having a separate existence and useful for the purposes of living.

Chapter 5

But whether anyone does in fact by nature answer to this description, and whether or not it is a just and a better thing for one man to be a slave to another, or whether all slavery is contrary to nature - these are the questions which must be considered next.

There are many different forms of this ruler-ruled relationship and they are to be found everywhere. For wherever there is a combination of elements,... and a common unity is the result, in all such cases the ruler-ruled relationship appears. It appears notably in living creatures as a consequence of their whole nature. The living creature consists in the first place of mind and body, and of these the former is ruler by nature, the latter ruled. [...] ...the man who is in good condition mentally and physically, one in whom the rule of mind over body is conspicuous - because the bad and unnatural condition of a permanently or temporarily depraved person will often give the impression that his body is ruling over his soul. However that may be, it is, as I say, within living creatures that we first find it possible to see both the rule of a master and that of a statesman. The rule of soul over body is like a master's rule, while the rule of intelligence over desire is like a statesman's or a king's. In these relationships it is clear that it is both natural and expedient for the body to be ruled by the soul, and for the emotional part of our natures to be ruled by the mind, the part which possesses reason. The reverse, or even parity, would be fatal all round. This is also true as between man and the other animals; for tame animals are by nature better than wild, and it is better for them all to be ruled by men, because it secures their safety. Again, as between male and female the former is by nature superior and ruler, the latter in ferior and subject. And this must hold good of mankind in general.
Therefore whenever there is the same wide discrepancy between human beings as there is between soul and body or between man and beast, then those whose condition is such that their function is the use of their bodies and nothing better can be expected of them, those, I say, are slaves by nature. It is better for them, just as in the cases mentioned, to be ruled thus.

Chapter 6

Surely it is in a sense goodness or ability which attains a position of command and is therefore best able to use force; and that which is victorious is so in virtue of superiority in some form of goodness.

...the slave is in a sense a part of his master, a living, but as it were a separate, part of his body.

Chapter 7

...there is a difference between the rule of master over slave and political rule. All forms of rule are not the same though some though some say that they are. Rule over free men is by nature different from rule over slaves; rule in a household is monarchical since every house has one ruler; the government of a state is rule over free and equal persons. 

Chapter 12


There are, as we saw, three parts of household management, corresponding to three types of rule, one as of a master, despotic;...  next the rule of a father; and a third which arises out of the marriage relationship. This is included becauserule is exercised over wife and children, over both as free persons... . For the male is more fitted to rule than the female. [...] ...between male and female this relationship of superior and inferior is permanent. Rule over children is royal, for the beggeter is ruler by virtue both of affection and age; and this is the prototype of royal rule.


Chapter 13


..inquirey into the relations of ruler and ruled, and in particular whether or not the virtue of the one is the same as the virtue of the other. ...why should one completely rule and the other completely obey?  [...] ...if he that rules is not to be self-controlled and just, how shall he rule well? And if the ruled lacks virtue, how shall he be ruled well? For if he is slack and disobedient, he will not perform his duties. Thus it becomes clear that both ruler and ruled must have a share in virtue but there are differences in virtue in each case... . An immediate indication of this is afforded by the soul; for it is here that the natural ruler and the natural subject, whose virtue we regard as different, are to be found. In the soul the difference betwen ruler and ruled is that between the rational and the non-rational. It is therefore clear that in other connexions also there will be natural differences. And so generally in cases of ruler and ruled; the differences will be natural but they need not be the same. For rule of free over slave, male over female, man over boy, are all natural, but they are also different, because, while parts of the soul are present in each case, the distribution is different. Thus the deliberative faculty in the soul is not present at all in a slave; in a female it is inoperative, in a child undeveloped.

Sophocles singles out 'silence' as 'brining credit to a woman', but that is not so for a man. This method of assessing virtue according to function is one that we should always follow.


Book V

Chapter 8

Constitutions last longer not only when any possible destroyers are at a distance, but sometimes just because they are close by; for through fear of them men keep a firm hold on their own constitution. So it becomes the duty of those who have the interests of the constitution at heart to create fear on its behalf, so that all may be on the lookout and not allow their watch on the constitution to disperse like sentries at night; the distant fear must be brought home.

Chapter 11

The typical tyrant dislikes proud and free­ spirited people. He regards himself as the only person entitled to those qualities; and anyone who shows a rival pride and a spirit of freedom destroys the supremacy and master-like character of the tyranny.


Book VII

Chapter 2

Certainly most people seem to think that domination and government are one and the same thing... . [...] Of course we may be sure that nature has made some creatures to be treated despotically and others not, and if this is so, we must try to exercise despotic rule not over all creatures but only over those made for such treatment.


Chapter 3

But not all giving of commands is despotic and those who think it is are mistaken. The difference between ruling over free men and ruling over slaves is as great as the natural differences between freedom and slavery, a distinction which has been sufficently emphasized in an earlier passage.

It is only when one man is superior in virtue and in the ability to perform the finest actions that it becomes right to serve him and just to obey him.


Chapter 7


The power to command and the spirit of freedom have their source in this faculty [the spirited part of man located in his heart], which is masterful and unsubdued.


Chapter 14


Since every association of persons forming a state consists of rulers and ruled, we must ask whether those who rule and those who are ruled ought to be different persons or the same for life; for the education which will be needed will depend upon which way we answer that question. If one group of persons were as far superior to all the rest as we deem gods and heroes to be superior to men, having to begin with great physical and bodily excellence and equally great mental and spiritual superiority, so much so that the superiority of the rulers is indisputable and quite evident to those ruled by them, then, I say, it is better that the same set of persons should always rule and the other always be ruled. But since this is not a condition that can easily be obtained, and since kings are not so greatly superior to their subjects as the writer Scylax says they were in India, it follows that, for a variety of causes, all alike must share in the business of ruling and being ruled by turns. ...this is fair and the established constitution can hardly be long maintained if it is contrary to justice. Otherwise there will be a large revolutionary element among the ruled all over the country, and it becomes quite impossible for even a strong governing class to withstand such a combination.

Again it cannot be disputed that rulers have to be superior to those who are ruled. It therefore becomes the duty of the lawgiver to consider how this distinction is to be made... . [...] ...as is often said, one who is to become a good ruler must first himself be ruled. Rule, as was said earlier, is of two kinds, according as it is exercised for the good of the ruler, which is despotic rule, or for the good of the ruled, which is rule over free men.

Two parts of the soul are distinguished, one possessing reason in itself, the other not so possessing reason but capable of listening to reason. [...] To those who accept our division of the soul there is no difficulty in answering the question 'To which of the parts does the concept of end belong?' For the inferior is always but a means to the superior;... and the superior in this case is that which is possessed of reason.

They are... wrong in supposing that a lawgiver ought openly to approve the acquisition of mastery; for rule over free men is nobler than despotic rule and more in keeping with virtue. [...] ...as for military training, the object in practising it regularly is not to bring into subjection men not deserving of such treatment. It has three purposes: (1) to save ourselves from becoming subject to others, (2) to win for our won city a position of leadership, exercised for the benefit of others not with a view to dominating all, (3) to exercise the rule of a master over those who deserve to be treated as slaves.


Chapter 15

..for us as human beings reason and the mind are the end to whcih our growth tends. Thus it is to these that the training of our habits, as well as our coming into being, must be directed. Next, as soul and body are two, so also we note two parts of the soul, the reasoning and the unreasoning; and each of these has its own natural propensity, the former intellectual, the latter appetitive. And just as the body comes into being earlier than the soul, so also the unreasoning is prior to that which possesses reason. This is shown by the fact that, while passion and will as well as appetite are to be found in children from birth, reasoning and intelligence come into being as they grow older. Therefore the care of the body must begin before the care of the mind, then the training of the appetitive element, but always for the sake of the intelligence, as the body's training is for the sake of the soul.