Climatic Determinism in Aristotle’s Idea of Natural Slavery Essay

One of the more potent texts in ancient literature is Aristotles seminal work on governance, Politics A Treatise on Government. In Politics, Aristotle sought to establish the transcendency of classic social and political order furcateicularly the rigid segregation amidst master and slave, by invoking the patterns of organization observed in spirit which he perceived to support the moral and inseparable correctness of Greek society and institutions.Arguably, Hippocrates earlier work, On Airs, Waters, and Places, which emphasized the central role of climatic and environmental situationors in the development of gracious bes and societies, plays a huge govern on Aristotles treatise particularly in his defense of slavery. In Airs, Waters, and Places, Hippocrates posits that climatic factors are responsible for differences in the physical, mental, and psychological characteristics of human populations. (Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, and Places, 2. ln. 18-20 13. ln. 7-15)Arguably, most of Aristotles surmises on the nature of relationships between races, individuals, and societies are based on Hippocratic notions of inherent differences in human physical and psychological constitution that arises from differences in humour and the forces of nature. The role of climatic determinism in Aristotles ideas about pictorial slavery is evident in his belief on the decisive part of a nation or societys location on earth in establishing racial superiority.Among the most obvious evidence of this is his fictional character to the differences between atomic number 63an, Asian, and Greek populations owing to the differences in geographic location and climate. Aristotle argues that Union Europeans, on the one hand, were made courageous by the cold climate in their countries but the like climate also made them stupid(p) and incapable of dominating others the Asians, on the other hand, were intelligent but their cowardice made them easy to enslave.He then rationalizes t hat Greece position between Europe and Asia enabled the Greeks to possess a balanced capacity for intelligence and courage that is obligatory of conquerors and masters. (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1327b. 14-20) Thus, Aristotles justification of slavery carries with it strains of climatic determinism, which espouses the ingrained superiority of just about races over others brought about by the superiority of the particular climate in their place of habitation. Conversely, the inferiority of the climate leads to the inferior development of human populations.It is decorous to note that in making these claims, Aristotle simply echoes Hippocrates earlier card of the racial dissimilarities arising from regional and climatic disparities. Hippocrates argues, for instance, that Asians display a gentler and more nonviolent nature than Europeans because of the nature of the seasons, which do not undergo any wide changes either to heat or cold, or the like. (Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, and Places, 16. ln. 2-4) Accordingly, the relative uniformity of seasons in Asia, which causes neither excitement of the understanding nor any strong change of the dead body(Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, and Places, 16. ln. 5) conditions its inhabitants to a passive existence that predisposes them to slavery. Hippocrates ideas then serve as the root word used by Aristotle in rationalizing slavery as a natural order among races. Aristotles idea of the existence of natural differences between races and the natural superiority of the Greek race makes it easy for him to justify the distinction between Greeks and barbarians that, in his view, justifies the enslavement of the latter by the former.This is illustrated in how Aristotle considers non-Greek cultures and societies as being more prone to slavery than the Greeks (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1285a. 13) by virtue of their outsider billet relative to Greek civilization. This assumption is distinctly based on Hippocrates visual modality of the diverse characteristics of populations of different countries with respect to their position relative to sunlight, winds, soil, and waters.In particular, Aristotle draws his assumption of Greek superiority from Hippocrates assertion that a country that is blasted by the winter and scorched by the sun produces individuals endowed not entirely with superior physical beauty and composition but also fine thinking skills that make them acute and ingenious as regards the Arts, and excelling in array affairs. (Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, and Places, 24. ln. 40-49) Aristotles climatic determinist thought extends to his idea of the qualities that differentiate a superior individual from the inferior one.For Aristotle, the existence of naive differences in human beings owing to the natures design justifies slavery as a natural and beneficial societal arrangement (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1255a. 1-2) Underlying this claim is clearly the belief that nature creates hierarchies between the superior and the inferior, as shown by the fact that climatic forces shape individuals either into conquerors or slaves. He claims, for instance, that those men therefore who are as much inferior to others as the body is to the mindare slaves by nature, and it is advantageous to them to be always under government. (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1254b. 11-13) Aristotle attributes the innate inferiority and enslavement of some individuals to the first principles of herile and political government (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1254b. 2) which shows that it is both(prenominal) natural and advantageous that the body should be governed by the soul. (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1254b. 4-5) Thus, in the same way, it is proper that the soul governs the body as the master governs his slave. (Aristotle, Politics, ln. 1254b. 3)