Aristotle

By Jorge Aliaga Cacho

Aristotle of Stageira (384 - 322) was the son of a physician-in-waiting of the Macedonian king Amyntas. From his youth, Aristotle was instructed by his father on the scientific principles of his art, biology, and empirical investigations.

At the age of eighteen Aristotle came to Athens, and entered the Academy where he remained for twenty years until the death of Plato. Later, unable to submit to Spensippus, whose theories differed fundamentally from his own, he decided to fund a branch of the Academy in Assus, in the Troas, which Hermias, the ruler of Aterneus, had presented to the Platonists. Here, Aristotle spent three years teaching and gaining the friendship of the ruling prince and influencing him politically and ethically. Hermias, the ruler of Atarneus, gave Aristotle in marriage his nice and adopted daughter. The next year he was invited to Pella by Philip of Macedon to supervise the education of his son Alexander.

We can appreciate how Aristotle`s life had always been linked with the lives of rulers. Therefore, his ideas on women, children and slaves were influenced by the ruling class. Aristotle considered `superiors' to those who held office, were of 'good birth', or were property owners. According to Aristotle the 'superiors' have the moral qualities of justice and courage; a high level of culture and education. In his view, they were the ones who should take part in the working of a state which aims at securing the 'good life'. (Aristotle, ''The Politics'', page 193, Penguin).

Aristotle wrote: `The upper groups will always be superior in education and ability, but the numerical superiority of other sections of the population also should be considered'. We wonder if he feared a rebellion of the 'inferiors' when he gave consideration to their numerical importance. Furthermore, we should be asking these questions: if the 'lower' classes have access to education or access to holding public office? The answer to both of these questions is no.

Aristotle's beliefs about society thus reflect the general beliefs of men of his class and time. Greek society of that time assumed itself to be culturally and ethically superior to all others. Non-Greeks, in Aristotle's opinion, are regarded as slaves by nature, to be treated 'like animals or plants'.

Aristotle's society was the society of the 'citizens', free-born males.

This society excluded a large proportion of the population, namely, women, children and slaves. The free-born women did not have a role in public life. Women slaves and their male counterparts were treated like animals or plants, however, it was permissible, in Aristotle's view, to rule over these. Aristotle also considered that apart from slaves by nature some are 'made' slaves by conquest, or sold to pay off debts. (his view on these 'unnatural slaves' will be considered later). 'Natural slaves', in his view, were those with defective reasoning powers who were unable to think for themselves and therefore only fit to follow orders. This view differed from the reality of the time when the buying and selling of slaves was a legal business matter which did not take into consideration the mental powers (or social class) of the item to be sold.

Aristotle felt that slavery by law implied that any Greek, however noble, could legally and justifiably be enslaved. He felt this situation improper—how could a high-born Greek be required to dirty his hands with manual labour? In book one of Politics, he discusses the structure of the household and the nature and office of a slave whom he defines as one 'by nature not his own, but another's a human being but also a possession' (I,5). He compares slaves with tame animals.

In book two of ''Politics,'' he challenges the Platonic ideas of the community (i.e. holding in common) of property and women. In a state having women and children in common, there would be low morale. He remarks: 'There are many difficulties in a community of women'. In book seven of 'Politics', Education and Rearing of Children, he considers that children must be kept from all bad company and indecency of speech and must not go to the theatre until they are of age 'to sit at the public table and drink strong wine'. The children Aristotle is referring to are male children. The minimal age for public drinking in a controlled environment of the symposia was 18 years old. Free-born women were excluded from these events, although female prostitutes were present in force.

In Aristotle`s view, a husband is to his wife what a statesman-ruler is to his fellow citizens, and a king is to his subjects as a father is to his child. Aristotle also considered that the male is more fitted to rule than the female unless conditions are quite contrary to nature; and the elderly and fully grown, was in his view, more fitted to rule than the younger and underdeveloped. Free-born children were in the care of women. Later boys entered education and public life. Aristotle held engrained class prejudices and contempt for lesser breeds. He abhorred manual labour: ¿could gentlemen properly play musical instruments? he asked.

Aristotle also advised Alexander to be a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as friends and relatives and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants. (Peter Green, 'Concise History of Ancient Greece, Thames and Hudson, 1974).

Aristotle thought that the concern the ruler should have for a slave is what he should have for a beast or tool, and that political rule concerns the rule over free people, capable of reason and self-direction.

Aristotle considered women and children unreasonable beings, although male children reason, he thought could be cultivated through education. Men and women have different roles to play in managing the household. It was Aristotle's view that the male role was to win, and the female to preserve. He strongly disapproves of the situation in Sparta where the status of women differed from that in Athens. ('For there the lawgiver, whose intention was was that the whole state should be though, has obviously shown toughness himself as far as the men are concerned, but has been negligent over the women. For at Sparta, women live, enjoying every license and indulging in every luxury'), 'Politics', page 142, Penguin.

Women, children and slaves did not participate in 'society' this participation was reserved for citizens. He holds that citizens are a particular class of men, 'to which no one who constantly is engaged in commercial or manual labour can belong, at any rate in the `best' stat. Such people have no time and the opportunity to fulfil the essential function of a citizen, to rule (while holding office) and to be ruled by turn'. ('Politics', page 183). Aristotle thought that mechanics and labourers were essential to a state, but he considered that this was not itself a qualification for citizenship. He thought, that citizenship was not merely a matter of life but of the 'good' life, in which a man exercises those high faculties, notably thought or reason. As we can see, women, children and slaves were outside this concept of citizenship. Children in Aristotle's view can be called citizens only in a hypothetical sense: 'They are citizens but incomplete ones'. ('Politics', page 184).

Aristotle also contrasted political rule and of the master over the slave. In this sense, he considered that 'whereas political authority should be exercised in the interests of the ruled, a master's authority is primarily for his own benefit, and only incidentally for that of the slave'. Earlier we pointed out the relations which Aristotle maintained with the ruling class. This is again noted in the correspondence held with the state chancellor Antipater.

Indeed, he was on such intimate terms with him that he appointed him his will executor. ('Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy', Eduard Zeller, page 156, Routledge, 1955).

In the year, 335 Aristotle settled in Athens and founded his school in the eastern part of the city, in the Lyceum before the gate of Diochares. This school was named 'Peripatetic' either because of the cloisters or because the members discussed scientific matters while walking up and down. The school was founded under Macedonian patronage.

According to Aristotle, 'the good life' consists of wholeheartedly feeling and acting in truly human ways. But, he thinks, many people can't act and feel as they should, or can do so only with difficulty and pain. He saw children as being moved largely by instincts, pleasure and pain. Aristotle believed that only by being raised and trained in certain ways can they act upon reason and develop adult features such as courage or cowardice, justice or injustice. Aristotle believed that children can be trained not to give into every fear or every bodily desire. He thought that male children could be trained to develop proper reason, proper desire and harmony.

Natural slaves, Aristotle claimed, are people who have a full enough range of desires and passions, but their reasoning capacities are seriously defective. Slaves in Aristotle's view, are incapable of deciding what to do based on rational plans and arguments drawn up by themselves. Slaves, he believed, are not self-directing, but can also obey orders. However, we should notice that Aristotle made a differentiation between natural slaves and 'made' slaves (those taken in wars, raids or the ones who are sold, for example, by their families or those who were pledged themselves as surety for a debt, and the like. Aristotlè argued strongly against the enslavement of the latter. He wanted to draw a line between 'natural slavery' and what he called slavery by law. He saw in the latter the danger that any Greek, no matter how rich and powerful, or how well-born and noble, could justifiably be enslaved.

Aristotle argued that husbands should rule over wives because women cannot control their emotions by reason. Furthermore, he said that men only are capable of having effective reason. Children; according to Aristotle, are not yet reasonable and must be shaped, and educated, for example, from their own desires.

Aristotle thought that women who have sex at an early age are more likely to be dissolute. This is also the case for males. Consequently, he recommended an appropriate age for marriage to be eighteen years old for girls and 37 years for men. He considered that with this timing, their union would occur when they were physically in their prime, bringing them together to the end of procreation at exactly the right moment for both. So the children's succession, if births take place promptly at the expected time, will occur when they are at the beginning of their prime and their parents are past their peaks, with the father approaching his seventieth year.

In conclusion, Aristotle's idea was that only through interaction with fellow citizens in the activities of a polis can people realise their true and full nature. He thought that only in a polis are the cultural and social possibilities so essential to a truly human life possible. In this way, he thought, that the state is natural for people and where they can become truly developed. He is referring to the cultural and social possibilities of the citizens excluding, of course, women, children and slaves.

My final view on Aristotle's ideas on women, children and slaves is that his beliefs represented, as I tried to demonstrate, the ideas of the ruling class. Furthermore, they were the views of victors of the Battle of Chaeronia, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian domination. The sponsorship of his Lyceum by the Macedonians in the year 335 BC, in my view, represents the payment for his theoretical contribution which justified the ruling class to dominate women, children and slaves.