Research Paper on:
Contemporary Slavery and Philosophical Concepts

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
prostitution to pay the debts of their parents. Other issues such as debt bondage merely denote the practice of making people work to pay their loans (2002). To that end,  slavery is unfortunately a part of twenty-first century life. There are concerns about psychological manipulation as well, and the trafficking in humans has also integrated organized crime rings (2002). The  buying and selling of human beings has been outlawed in most of the civilized world, but that does not mean that slavery, in the pure definition of the term, is  not a reality. The concept of modern slavery may be looked at extensively. There is much evidence of this, even though little is done to stop the problem. Yet,  a philosophical approach will provide new insights into this problem that goes most predominately to politics and ethics. One would however be hard pressed to find a position that outright  condones slavery, but it is likely that many people justify the practice, at least to themselves. In early America, many Christians were slave owners, but rationalized the practice, even converting  some of their own slaves to their religion. It is hard to find any reason for slavery and most philosophical positions oppose the buying and selling of human beings.  How would a Kantian analyze the ethics of slavery? How might a utilitarian, a social contract theorist, a feminist, or a virtue ethicist analyze it? Kant believed in autonomy of  wills but he also believed that man had a highest good (Honderich, 1995). While he believed in autonomy and that one should respect anothers opinion, he also thought that there  is a universal law from which rational acts emanate (1995). While Kant generally leaves decisions to the will of the people, the will of the slave also needs to be