Slavery in Philosophy

Catalog description

This course examines slavery as a topic of philosophical analysis. Surveying a range of ancient and modern discourses, we will think together about the following questions: What is slavery? What is a slave? Who can be a slave? Why does slavery exist? What is the relationship between slavery and race? Slavery and gender? Slavery and religion? We will encounter several views on these questions, paying close attention to the ways they emerged in their historical contexts. We will begin with a study of slavery in the ancient world, focusing on Greece and Rome. Ancient Greek and Roman accounts of slavery and freedom form much of the foundation for how slavery was understood in the medieval and early modern world. These beginnings will give us the conceptual tools necessary for us to analyze and understand the enslavement of Indigenous peoples and Africans by Europeans and the American anti-slavery movement. The course ends by considering slavery's enduring legacy in the modern university.