Rereadings of Aristotelian Natural Servitude in Light of the Christian Philosophical Tradition

from Medieval Scholasticism to the Conquest of America

Abstract

The article examines the reception and critique of the Aristotelian doctrine of natural slavery throughout medieval scholasticism and, subsequently, in sixteenth-century Iberian scholasticism, highlighting how Christian philosophy and the experience of colonization shaped its reworking. The aim is to bring out the tension between the universalism of human dignity and historical conditioning within Christian philosophical experience. To this end, the Aristotelian conception of natural slavery is first presented, along with its earliest confrontations with Christian thought, particularly in Saint Augustine. Next, two opposing positions from the thirteenth century are analyzed: that of Thomas Aquinas, who assimilates and adapts elements of Aristotle's doctrine, and that of John Duns Scotus, who subjects it to a scathing critique. Finally, the article discusses how sixteenth-century Iberian scholasticism applied this reinterpreted Aristotelian-scholastic tradition to the reality of indigenous peoples. It concludes that the experience of colonization intensifies a structural tension within Christianity between the universalism of human dignity and historical projects of domination, giving rise to selective readings of both Aristotle and the Christian tradition itself to ground and justify divergent positions.