Aristotle Morality Research Paper

Aristotle’s Morality

In the following essay I mainly looking to discuss the idea of Justice as portrayed and analyzed by the author Sandler, in the book titled “Justice: What's the right thing to do?” the idea of justice will be discussed as is apparent according the the philosopher mentioned in chapter 8 of the book, John Rawls and his two principles of justice or morality which have been discussed. More so, I hopefully wish to go on further to discuss the topic of justice as apparent from Aristotle’s idea of slavery and how Sandler has shed light on Aristotle’s idea of slavery from another perspective.

In accordance with Aristotle’s idea of slavery, the fact is that the philosopher was not opposed to the inherent idea of slavery. This is because according to him every person had an inherent role to play within the society and therefore, some people were meant to be governed by their masters. However, the philosopher Rawls would not agree with his idea. This is because according to his first principle of justice, the idea is that everyone has an inherent right to live freely and have the basic necessities in life. This means that no person has fixed roles within the society and therefore, everybody deserves the benefits of life according to his or her talents. (Sandel M. J., 2009)

In addition to the above, what can be seen is that after I read the complete idea of Aristotle and his notion on slavery, it can be seen that the slavery Aristotle supports simply does not and cannot exist. According to Aristotle, justice is achieved when people are accorded the roles they fit. This means that in order for the slavery to exist within the society in just and fair means, there are two very important conditions. The first is that the idea...

... middle of paper ...

... J., 2009)

Immanuel Kant is another person who is at odds with Aristotle’s defense of slavery because Kant believed in freedom of choice and human dignity, as opposed to fitting people to suited roles regardless of their preference. Kant would not support enslaving a person, even if it were necessary for a functioning society, because he did not believe in treating human beings as a means to an end. Instead, Kant believed that people should be treated as ends in themselves, not tools to achieve the greater good or general welfare of society. I strongly support and agree with Kant’s notion on slavery because it is the right of the people to be free and not be rules over or governed by the so called masters just for the sake of functioning of the society.

Bibliography

Sandel, M. J. (2009). Justice: What's the right thing to do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.