Jacob J. Khan's Justice class paper explores libertarians' arguments for and against slavery. Jacob's in-depth analysis of the philosophical arguments reveals that all forms of slavery are unethical based on librarian logic.

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Jacob Khan (Undergrad)
Professor Michael Sandel
Harvard University
8 December 2020
The case against all types of slavery
Introduction & Thesis:
In this paper, we will explore the moral arguments for and against slavery through the
philosophers' lens as well as Professor Michaels Sandel's examples from his Justice class. We
will examine Libertarianism's case against slavery and the potential claimthat can be made for
slavery using Utilitarian rhetoric. There are many different types of slavery. Historically in the
United States, there was the enslavement of African Americans through what is called racial
slavery, and in contemporary times we have modern-day slavery in the form of human
trafficking. I argue that human beings are free and cannot be slaved because they have rights
within themselves that cannot be taken away from them.
Libertarians & Sandel's argument against slavery:
Libertarians would argue that slavery is not right morally. For libertarians, morality is
conferred by the protection and maximizing of individual liberty. For example, giving citizens of
a country autonomy and freedom over their day-to-day lives. These ideas of freedom argue
that people's individual rights are worthy of special considerations. Professor Michael Sandel,
in his class, gives the case of doctors pulling out organs from patients that may not need them
as much as others. He argues that Libertarians would not make an exception for individuals'
rights being violated in the long run because there will be adverse effects in the long run. I
agree with this claimand similar to how people organs cannot be taken away from them

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human beings also cannot be slaved. Sandel says that in the case of patients, they would learn
about what doctors are doing and will stop going to doctors for checkups. The reason why
doctors don't remove your organs and give them to others is that they have intrinsic respect for
the person as an individual.
The ideas of libertarians also extend to the redistribution of wealth. In his book, Sandel
argues that for libertarian’s taxation is similar to theft from individuals because the state forces
individuals to pay them money that they earned and needed. The argument also goes on to
claimthat taxation is a form of forced labor because individuals have to work longer because a
part of their earnings have to be paid to the government. We can apply the same ideas to
human being because we own ourselves and therefore our bodies are a part of property that
cannot be taken away from us.
I make the Libertarian argument for why slavery is not acceptable because, firstly, it
does not respect individual rights. I believe living in a society means respecting the individual
rights of all citizens, similar to the case that libertarians make for what is the role of
government. I also think that when we become a part of community, we create a set of rules
that help protect those rights. Human dignity and life are a set of those values that everyone
must respect because, without them, we would be disrespecting ourselves. Secondly, In the
long run, slavery will affect society negatively. If we have a community in which there are
injustices, there will be negative consequences to society and everyone within it. Therefore, I
believe we as citizens of a community should work hard to stop injustices and reduce them as
much as we can. Thirdly, slavery is forced labor because it forces the enslaved to give up rights
such as ownership of their own wealth in themselves. I believe that autonomy and the ability

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to make decisions is one reason why we exist. That right to be able to make decisions and
make an impact is essential to life. Therefore, individuals and society should ban slavery of all
types.
Utilitarian's argument for slavery:
Utilitarian’s, on the other hand, in some cases, may be able to make a case for slavery in
some limited circumstances. According to utilitarianism, morality can be defined in one set of
values, which is utility. They believe that decisions should be based on the maximizing of
pleasure and minimizing of pain. According to Jeremey Bentham, these pleasures and pains are
fixed in that there is no actual distinction between higher quality or lower quality pleasure. For
Bentham, people are governed by pain and pleasure. This leads to arguments that support the
greatest good for the greatest number. He typically used a mathematical calculous to find the
maximizing balance of happiness over suffering. By this logic, we can assume that if a society
were to enslave people, and the costs were limited compared to the reward, it may be morally
permissible to allow slavery. However, one could argue that slavery is acceptable based on the
total cost to society vs. total benefit. That is not a great argument to make.
I believe that there is more to life than just utility, pleasure, and pain. There is a certain
level of dignity that human beings poses, and therefore they cannot be dehumanized in that
way.
Conclusion:
Ultimately, In the past, we had racial slavery because there were ethical reasons that
made it acceptable to own slaves. As discussed in this paper, utilitarianismcan make a case for
slavery, and it is a fairly reasonable answer, but it is wrong. As mentioned in the introduction,

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there are many different types of slavery, and some of them are still around, even in the United
States. Human trafficking, for example, is a severe problem in our backyards, and we have to
deploy capital and resources to stop it consistently. These discourses in the ethics of slavery
leads to understand that slavery is morally wrong but that there are still reasons under which
slavery can be proven to be ethically permissible. As argued in this paper slavery of all forms is
bad and communities should work towards removing any and all injustices caused by it.