I'm having trouble with this concept. Why is slavery wrong? Not just because of poor conditions and abuse, because I wouldn't support slavery even if you had the best working conditions. Help a thoroughly befuddled kid out here.
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Why is slavery wrong?
- Thread starter Nooj
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NavyGuy7
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I don't see how you can not understand it, but I guess with 6 billion people out in the world someone was bound to raise this sort of question. Lemme think. Ah, try imagining yourself in the position of a slave (say, pre-civil war times). You would be constantly abused, whipped, and shouted at for the slightest mistake, or if you weren't working hard or fast enough. Now times that thought by 100.
Granted, it's hard to imagine the concept of slavery in our world today, since no one is a slave in today's world, not really.
Also, another thought would be that through slavery, you are robbing an individual of his/her ability to live life the way they want to, instead of how someone else wants them to live minute by minute, with the whip quicker than their tempers. When one is a slave, it means another individual has complete power and dominance over that person. They are, in effect, bound.
Granted, it's hard to imagine the concept of slavery in our world today, since no one is a slave in today's world, not really.
Also, another thought would be that through slavery, you are robbing an individual of his/her ability to live life the way they want to, instead of how someone else wants them to live minute by minute, with the whip quicker than their tempers. When one is a slave, it means another individual has complete power and dominance over that person. They are, in effect, bound.
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Why the hell wouldn't it be? It's forced labor, you don't earn anything and you're treated extremely badly.
Isn't that enough?
Isn't that enough?
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Eudaimonist
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Self-direction is essential to personal flourishing. If you can't make decisions about your own life as an adult, you are being prevented from living a human life. So much of what it is to be human is bound up in being able to direct the course of your life. Without freedom, your ability to have forethought, to develop your talents, to actualize your decision-making ability, and so much more, is wasted. You would be treated as a tool, not as an end-in-yourself. You could only hope to live a stunted life, denied of your highest potentials.
So, slavery is fundamentally anti-human. It is the misuse of a human being. It fails to respect what human life is.
eudaimonia,
Mark
So, slavery is fundamentally anti-human. It is the misuse of a human being. It fails to respect what human life is.
eudaimonia,
Mark
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I made point of this in the OP that even if slavery had the best conditions possible, I wouldn't support it, and I wager that most people wouldn't either.
Cool. Now that makes sense.
This too. Thanks.
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lawtonfogle
My solace my terror, my terror my solace.
First off, too many here has their general idea of slavery wrong. It involves more than just what happened in pre-historic civil war.
Now, though this may be hard to comprehend in todays world, would you support slavery if the conditions of the slave were better than if he had been free?
Also, any time you buy something from China, you are most likely supporting slavery (ok, so using China was a stereotype, but you get the point). Economic slavery still exist in todays world, and you probably support it without knowing you do so.
Now, though this may be hard to comprehend in todays world, would you support slavery if the conditions of the slave were better than if he had been free?
Also, any time you buy something from China, you are most likely supporting slavery (ok, so using China was a stereotype, but you get the point). Economic slavery still exist in todays world, and you probably support it without knowing you do so.
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Eudaimonist
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No, I would not. Not even if he lived in a luxury room in a mansion and ate caviar.
This is possible, though I would avoid products made by slave labor if I had good knowledge of this. It is unfortunate that slavery might be accidentally supported.
eudaimonia,
Mark
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NavyGuy7
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I merely used it as an example. There are other examples I could have used, such as ancient Egypt and the Hebrews, etc. So please, think over the facts before you make such accusations. Saying that last sentence implies that you think I am retarded and not thinking outside the box of the civil war. Shame on you.
Of course not. Slavery is slavery. It's more than just about physical conditions. It's about the mental stuff too. I'm stuck in a house, waiting for my life to begin, and my conditions are fairly good. But I still want to live MY life how I want. I tend to get depressed, waiting for the Navy to finally ship me off to boot camp. FREEEEDDDOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!
Do you have a direct example, or decisive evidence? Please, enlighten us as to what you might mean.
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Most of the answers in the thread seem to be along this line. The problem with this is that no one asked whether slavery was unpleasant, but rather, whether it was wrong. How are we making the jump from being unpleasant to being morally wrong?
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Mark, everyone knows that this only applies to Greeks; nonGreeks haven't the capacity for reason, and so it is the duty of the Greeks to enslave them, that they may help the barbarians lead good lives.
(This is a lot funnier if you remember Nichomachean Ethics)
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I think the emphasis is of the "forced" part. Whether the actual work forced upon you is pleasant or not is - for the discussion at hand - but a side aspect (and the OP explicitly tried to exclude it from the discussion, btw.).
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Sojourner<><
Incoherent Freedom Fighter
Exploitation is wrong because it's wrong to treat others in a way that you don't want to be treated. Slavery and exploitation are closely related.
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I mean, I'm willing to include being forced to do something under the umbrella of what is generally unpleasant. But this is the key issue, isn't it? What makes a thing wrong?
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For the same reason Rape is wrong. It is because no one wants to be raped. You can't want to be raped because if you do, you aren't being raped.
No one wants to be a slave. You can't. If you want to be a slave you aren't one.
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Not just someone, but in this case everyone.
To answer your question though because that is what wrong is.
Definition:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wrong
Wrong:
12.to do wrong to; treat unfairly or unjustly; harm.
Since we can all agree that the action causes harm, we can all agree that it is wrong.
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You've defined the verb form, which is actually significantly less problematic than the adjective form
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