Can We Blame Aristotle? The Case of Slavery

The recent public discussion that took place in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and focused on the question of whether we should hold accountable proponents of slavery throughout history touched upon Aristotle, among others (although he was far from being at the centre of it). The very question of holding Aristotle accountable or blaming him for his views on slavery strikes some people as preposterous – perhaps as bearing a clear mark of partisan cultural policies. However, I see no reason it cannot be asked and discussed. Moreover, prima facie, Aristotle very well deserves to be blamed. In this paper, I attempt to classify and explore the main ways we could (and historically did) try to show that it is not appropriate to blame Aristotle, i.e., the ways we could try to excuse or vindicate him. We can attempt to do it on theoretical grounds from within his theory of slavery (§ 1), on historical or psychological grounds, external to this theory (§ 2) and on purely moral grounds (§ 3). As far as I can tell, all those attempts ultimately fail. As a result, I see nothing that would make blaming Aristotle for his views on slavery inappropriate or irrational. I conclude my discussion by touching upon the question of what forms this blaming might appropriately take.