Bartolomé de Las Casas' culturalistic turn in his interpretation of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2019.3.36240Keywords:
Bartolomé de Las Casas, natural slavery, just war, human nature, culturalist interpretation, cultural argumentation.Abstract
In order to protect the indigenous population of the Americas from slavery and war, Bartolomé de Las Casas (+1566) carries out a cultural turn in the understanding of what is considered “natural”. The idea that there are slaves by nature was explained in the colonial period by recourse to Aristotle and in view of the inhabitants of the West Indies. A warlike subjugation of disobedient and rebellious slaves was therefore a “natural” affair - like the entire European expansion. Drawing on Aristotle’s understanding of ethos and Aquinas’ considerations of human beings’ natural knowledge of God, Las Casas initiates a culturalist interpretation of human nature. In this way, the indicators that are supposed to qualify the Indians as homunculi and slaves by nature are re-qualified as indicators of authentic humanity. The article reconstructs Las Casas’ innovative cultural argumentation
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