Abstract
In the wake of the current revival of the historiography of racism, this article focuses on the claim that Aristotle is the progenitor of the concept in the West. If a purely textual analysis of Aristotelian political writings can lead to such a conclusion, the historicising of these writings leads to a different result. Rejecting the idea that the normative function of the work of Aristotle is limited to the Athenian polis, this article demonstrates that the imperial context should serve as an ‘available light’ by which the meaning of certain Aristotelian key concepts, including nature, the ‘divine man’ and the natural slave. In doing so, the central role of prohairesis in Aristotle's conception of human nature is highlighted.
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