Rethinking the Concept of “Property” in Politics: Slavish or Free Domination?

This paper seeks to rediscover the traditional meaning of “property” in the light of Thomistic philosophy and the practice of ancient legal texts, both in the West and in the Far East, in order to better grasp the reality of slavery analyzed not according to modern property law, but according to the traditional conception of this “property,” considered as a bond of political domination more than as a right to use and abuse. This change of perspective is necessary to the work of historical research in order to avoid anachronism on the one hand, and to facilitate the analysis of historical phenomena of the past on the other. This philosophical reflection should also make it possible to put political analysis, in the noble and classical sense of the term, back at the center, as opposed to the materialistic and economistic analyses of the last century, which reduced man to his material aspect. Lastly, this paper seeks to highlight a certain anthropological universality of (just) political domination as opposed to (tyrannical) servile domination, and a Christian specificity that orders this domination to the good of the subordinate out of charity.