試題詳解

35. Choose the adjective that best fills the blank.

(A) yellow.

(B) blue.

(C) red.

(D) purple.
Aristotle thought that the value or worth of a human being — his virtue — was something that he acquired in growing up. It follows that people who can't (women, slaves) or simply don't (manual laborers) acquire that virtue have no grounds for demanding equal respect or recognition with those who do.

As I read him, Aristotle not only did not believe in the conception of intrinsic human dignity that grounds our modern commitment to human rights, he has a philosophy that cannot be squared with it. Aristotle's inegalitarianism is less like Kant and Hume's racism and more like Descartes's views on nonhuman animals: The fact that Descartes characterizes nonhuman animals as soulless automata is a direct consequence of his rationalist dualism. His comments on animals
cannot be treated as "stray remarks."

If cancellation is removal from a position of prominence on the basis of an ideological crime, it
might appear that there is a case to be made for canceling Aristotle. He has much prominence:
Thousands of years after his death, his ethical works continue to be taught as part of the basic
philosophy curriculum offered in colleges and universities around the world.

And Aristotle's mistake was serious enough that he comes off badly even when compared to the
various "bad guys" of history who sought to justify the exclusion of certain groups — women,
Black people, Jews, gays, atheists — from the sheltering umbrella of human dignity. Because
Aristotle went so far as to think there was no umbrella.