Did any of the ancient Greek philosophers speak against slavery?

lanfranco

I don't know of any. In antiquity, slavery seemed to make perfect economic and political sense, so when Aristotle and Plato wrote about it, for example, they simply accepted it as a social given. The site below suggests that Aristotle encouraged manumission for loyal service. (I know that later in Rome, manumission rates were high. The Romans had an endless supply of slaves via military conquest; therefore, they often freed slaves, though the laws ensured that former masters and former slaves were closely bound to one another, so that the freedmen would not become public charges.) http://encarta.msn.com/text_761556943__1/Slavery.html Here are some comments by both Aristotle and Plato on the subject of slavery: http://www.geneseo.edu/~harrison/humn1_html/greece.html May 13 07, 5:22 PM