Abstract

Ground breaking in many ways, Richard Bodéüs’ influential book,Le philosophe et la cité, published in 1982 (The Political Dimensions of Aristotle's Ethics, 1993), offers a reinterpretation of the complex notion of phrónēsis. In the same line of inquiry, this article analyzes one of the more modest forms of phrónēsis, namely economy, more specifically the part of economy that involves the relationship with unfree people. The Aristotelian views on the master-slave relationship are put into perspective in light of Bodéüs’ observations on command. This approach leads to pointing out the full meaning of the concept of servility, which is deeper than is generally recognized, allowing readers to grasp how “in many respects human nature is servile,” according to theMetaphysics(A, 2, 982b29-30).