What the Slavery Question needs

• explain what the general theories of society of the authors are

• state their views on the family and slavery

• show how these views relate to their general theories

With respect to each author you should show what they thought the family was. You should have been clear that ideas of the family usually include children as well as men and women. You might have noticed that Aristotle includes slaves when speaking of the family.

What the title tells you

Ask questions

Suggested order

Conclusions become introductons

Early draft of introduction

Sample introduction, references and bibliography

References example

• What was Aristotle's theory of society?

• What was Aristotle's theory of the family? - (Use index)

• What was Aristotle's theory of slavery? - (Use index)

• Is there a relationship between Aristotle's general theory of society and his theories of the family and slavery?

You can also ask how they relate to one another.

If you answer the questions in the order they are asked, you will have begun a well ordered essay. Let us look at this in more detail.

Follow the timeline links for each of the authors to make sure you know when they lived and something about their history.

As Aristotle lived long before Rousseau and Olympe de Gouges, you may expect them to be commenting on Aristotle's theories. Rousseau does do this. So, it will make it easier for you if you write about the authors in the order they lived.

You are asked to relate the authors' theories of the family and slavery to their general theories of society. To do this, it is sensible to first establish the theory of society that an author has. (This is easier with Aristotle and Rousseau than it is with Olympe de Gouges). It is sensible to explain the author's theory of society, and then his or her theory of the family and slavery, and how that fits into his or her theory of society.

If you have problems working out what the author's general theory of society is, try the following:

• Read through the Aristotle extracts, marking every mention of "society". Also mark related words like "community" and "state". To help you, the index to the web extracts includes society, community and state. Thinking about these passages should enable you to describe Aristotle's general theory of society. Use the lecture notes to help you find passages that show he role of reason in Aristotle's theory of society and state. The web extracts also have two key passages highlighted (top right), including the state being the highest form (end-product) that nature reaches. The lecture notes on Aristotle's argument should also help - They link you to relevant passages.

  You could start with this argument of Aristotle's that the state is the highest form of society and the end to which everything points. Think about why he argues this and how it relates to reason. It should then be possible to show how the other parts of society (households, women, slaves, for example, fit in)

• Read chapter 4 of Social Science History on Rousseau's theory of the general will. The general will is central to Rousseau's general theory of society. [Base your essay on your interpretation of the extracts - Not on the Social Science History essay. If you follow the essay it could count as plagiarism]. Read the Rousseau extracts carefully, using the index to help you find issues. Notice that he relates society to the family, as well as to the general will. He also relates slavery to society. Why is slavery incompatible with his theory of society, but compatible with Aristotle's theory of society?

• Think about the various ways that Olympe de Gouges speaks of family relations (motherhood, children, etc) in the extracts . Do not just read the points of her declaration. Also read her message to the Queen and her comments on slavery. Is she thinking of the whole society as a family? If so, how does it differ from the family Aristotle writes about?

Conclusions can become introductons, with arguments

The answers you form to the questions you asked are your conclusions. You may find it most natural to write your conclusions down at the end of the essay. Here is the conclusion to a previous student's draft essay:

conclusion: "To conclude, Aristotle's stance on the family and slavery denied women and slaves any rights. Rousseau disagreed with Aristotle with respect to slaves, but his position with respect to women in the family is very similar to Aristotle's. Olympe de Gouges has compared the similarities of oppression of both slaves and women, and emphasises the importance of giving women rights".

This student was able to improve her essay by reflecting on her conclusion. She noticed two things:

1. Her conclusion contained nothing about the general theories of society of Aristotle, Rousseau and Olympe de Gouges. She looked at her draft essay and found that she had not dealt with that part of the question. She had to re- read and think about the texts to bring this aspect in.

2. Her conclusion is an argument. It is the case that she is making in reply to the question. By writing it at the front of the essay she was immediately able to focus her essay with an argument. All she had to do was to change "To conclude" to "I will argue that":

conclusion becomes argument statement in introduction: "I will argue that Aristotle's stance on the family and slavery denied women and slaves any rights. Rousseau disagreed with Aristotle with respect to slaves, but his position with respect to women in the family is very similar to Aristotle's. Olympe de Gouges has compared the similarities of oppression of both slaves and women, and emphasises the importance of giving women rights".

The student who wrote the above introduction decided she had made a mistake in her interpretation of Aristotle. She came to this conclusion as she was re-reading the text. It was a painful process working out what did not seem to fit in in what Aristotle said with what she had written.

Here is the introduction to her final essay. See if you can see how she has altered her interpretation of Aristotle. To help you, I have marked the relevant part in italics. When you have identified the difference between her first argument and this interpretation, follow the reference to the text in Social Science History and see if you agree with her. The coloured links will take you to the web versions of the extracts.

To understand referencing, you must understand key words and numbers. Follow the referencing advice on the web extract pages: Aristotle - Rousseau - Olympe de Gouges

"I will discuss how Aristotle, Rousseau and Olympe Des Gouges relate the family and its relationships to slavery and its relationships. I will also look at how slavery and the family relate to the political structures of general society for each theorist. I will argue that Aristotle sees both similarities and contrasts when he compares the relations of men and women within the family to the relations of master and slave. He says that both relations are natural, but of different kinds (Aristotle 1885 p.1252a and p.1259a39). In contrast, Rousseau argues that slavery is not natural and is against nature (Rousseau 1762 par 1.2.8). However, he argues that the relations between men and women are natural, and are according to nature. Olympe de Gouges argues that both slavery and gender domination are against nature, because the human race as a whole is a family, and she states that this entails freedom for everyone (Gouges, O. 1791). Bibliography Aristotle, 1885, Politics. Translation of Benjamin Jowett, web edition at http://studymore.org.uk/xari.htm - Bekker page numbers used. Gouges, O. 1791 The Rights of Woman Paragraph numbers from the web copy at http://studymore.org.uk/xoly.htm Rousseau, J.J. 1762 The Social Contract Paragraph numbers from the web copy at http://studymore.org.uk/xrou.htm

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