Should we cancel Aristotle?

He defended slavery and opposed the notion of human equality. But he is not our enemy.

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Greek philosopher Aristotle did not merely condone slavery, he defended it; he did not merely defend it, but defended it as beneficial to the slave. His view was that some people are, by nature, unable to pursue their own good, and are best suited to be "living tools" for use by other people: "The slave is a part of the master, a living but separated part of his bodily frame."

Aristotle's anti-liberalism does not stop there. He believed that women were incapable of authoritative decision-making. And he decreed that manual labourers, despite being neither slaves nor women, were nonetheless prohibited from citizenship or education in his ideal city.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 25, 2020, with the headline Should we cancel Aristotle?. Subscribe