Abstract:
The contributions by medieval thinkers to the debate on slavery are still little known in their details. Together with the approaches in ancient philosophy, patristics, Roman law, and Canon law, they constitute a body of texts and ideas that are fundamental to understanding the treatment of slavery from the 16th to the 19th centuries. In this article, we examine John Duns Scotus’ account of the theme, contrasting it with the views of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. The position of Scotus depends on his views about freedom, property, and positive law, as well on the meaning of free will as a practical-rational condition of all human beings. Based on these ideas, Scotus severely restricts the conditions of positive law according to which servitude can be justly introduced, and the scope of the loss of freedom that can be accepted in the contract of slavery.
Keywords:
Slavery; Freedom; Aristotle; Thomas Aquinas; John Duns Scotus