Aristóteles en el encuentro de dos mundos: La presencia del pensamiento político de Aristóteles en la Conquista de América

Abstract

The aim of this work is to highlight the presence of Aristotle’s political thought in the reasoning made by Spaniards regarding the Conquest of America. These propositions are related mainly with his work Politcs, in which he talks about slavery and barbarian people. Although they were rational beings, natural slaves could not enjoy freedom and, furthermore, barbarians had no capacity for selfgovernment. All these ideas were in the centre of discussions about the just cause of the Spanish conquest, especially in the debate between Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda.