I know that this is about some readings we did a while ago, but it has been running through my head and I am interested in what people think. When we read Locke, we spent a while going over his argument for slavery. This argument basically said that if you are a slave, you obviously cannot be human because no human would ever give up his or her rights to his or her own body. While Locke was using the argument to justify slavery in his own time, what comes out of the argument is that if you are in fact human, you can’t be a slave. Hegel also talks about slaves in his book the Phenomenology of Spirit. Hegel talks about the first time humans gain self-consciousness by recognizing the self in the other. After this recognition, there must be a fight to the death between the two consciousnesses until one is the victor. Hegel says that at some point, the victor decided not to kill the defeated, but instead made the defeated a slave. Hegel says that this enslavement of one consciousness to another is a vital stage in the development of human spirit. In fact, Hegel argues that modern man comes out of the slave rather than the master. As Nietzsche describes it, the slave is the first time man is pregnant with a future and becomes an interesting animal.
These are two interesting views on slavery because Locke is arguing that it is impossible for a human to ever be enslaved, while Hegel and Nietzsche are arguing that slavery is not only possible, but a vital step in mankind’s progress. They argue that even in the modern era, people still have this slave mentality. Can both of them be right? Is one of them right? Both Hegel and Locke describe mankind in the state of nature and as well as in society, but Hegel is giving us a progression from the state of nature to the present state, while Locke doesn’t provide such a progression. The Hegelian model of the master slave dialectic seems like a more robust account of the progression of human behavior than Locke’s description of the state of nature and the state of commonwealth. After today’s discussion, what would Sartre say about either model? Would he agree with either thinker?
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I personally believe Hegel is way more on target then Locke is. Although I realize we have already established that Locke's argument is in fact valid, its still just plain unfair and ridiculous. I think his argument can only be seen as a justification for slavery. Also I think Sarte would say if we are born into slavery, it isnt our fault. But it is our own responsibility to get out of our situation, since he believes we are responsible for our actions. However, if we weren't able to get out of slavery, I do not think he would say we weren't human. Rather he would probably say something to the effect of it is by our own doing that we are still slaves
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