Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 15:14:12 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Aquinas and Slavery



At 03:06 PM 10/13/99 -0400, kenneth.mackendrick-AT-utoronto.ca wrote:

>Aquinas writes, in his essay, "On Kingship" - "Now the end 
>which befits a multitude of free men is different from that 
>which befits a multitude of slaves, for the free man is one 
>who exists for his own sake, while the slave, as such, 
>exists for the sake of another...."

This sounds almost directly quoted from Aristotle. If so, I'd say he's
taking the line that slavery is natural. The weird thing is, the whole issue
is pretty much moot for Aquinas, no? Aristotle deals with it because it's a
basic feature of his social landscape, whereas Aquinas seems to be dealing
with it just because of a dependence on Aristotle.

Bill
__________________________________
William Arnal		wea1-AT-is7.nyu.edu
Religion/Classics	check out my web page, at:
New York University	http://pages.nyu.edu/~wea1/