The Master-Slave Relationship

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The Master-Slave Relationship

In this paper I will be discussing the master-slave relationship. I will give you an understanding as to how this union exists. Also I will brief you on how without this relationship a city would not exist. This paper will not only define the master-slave relationship but give quotations and examples that will help you the reader to fully understand this concept.

In the master-slave relationship, with this union, the master can not exist without the slave. The slave is there to assist the master with the maintaining of the master’s wants and needs. In the classroom setting the teacher is the slave because he or she has the knowledge that is needed by the students. The students would be the master because the teacher is upholding the desires and wishes of the students by teaching them the knowledge they have. According to Aristotle The Politics, Book I Chapter 2, “The naturally ruling and ruled, on the account of preservation. For that which can see with the thought is naturally ruling and naturally mastering elements while that which can do with the body is naturally ruled and slave.” This is one of the common relationships that are known in the household. The household is the partnership established by nature for the needs of daily life. A group of households makes up a village, and a group of villages makes up a city.

Now that we have seen that the city is made up of households, I would like to discuss that management of the household. What makes up the household relates to the people in the household. A complete household consist of slaves and freemen; who are the master and slave, the husband and wife, and the parent and child. The leadership of the master over the slave is different from nature, and the difference between the slave and freeman only exists by law. It is considered just, but the slave and freeman don’t exists by nature and being an impediment with nature is consequently unjust.

What is property? According to the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary property is defined as a quality or trait belonging and especially peculiar to an individual or thing. Property is also in conjunction with the household, and the ability of managing property is also a part of managing the household; for no man can live well, or indeed live at all, unless he is supplied with the essential items needed to survive...

... middle of paper ...

...ical rule were the same, but they are different. Mastery and political rule are not the same thing, because political rule is over those who are free and equal. With this rule the master is not called master because he has skill that is needed. To be in love is to also be in a master-slave relationship. With this form you are trying to embody in the person what you think you need. So the person that needs something is the master and the one who encompasses it is the slave. Mastery rule is acquiring slaves but using them for their advantage. With slavery, the masters acquired slaves, and the slaves were used for the monetary gain of the masters.

So in conclusion, the master-slave relationship not one only exist in the household, but it exist in society and everyday life. Without this relationship, people would be unable to determine who they are as a person and what their purpose is in life. This relationship helps define many interactions, weather it is romantic, educational, or a job function. I never really thought to much about this relationship and just related it to slavery, but I have come to know that it is a significant aspect in the way life’s relationships are viewed.

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