to airbrush or sanitize Aristotle,

用来粉饰亚里士多德
to make him seem more politically correct for modern readers.

使他在政治学上对现代读者来说更为正确
Yet, we should also avoid the second,

我们也要避免第二点
equally powerful temptation,

同第一点相同力量的引诱
which is to reject Aristotle out of hand,

完全拒绝亚里士多德的观点
because his views do not correspond with our own.

因为他的观点和我们的完全不一致
The question is what did Aristotle mean by slavery.

问题是什么才是亚里士多德所说的奴隶制
Who or what did he think was the slave by nature?

他认为谁或者什么才天生是奴隶
Until we understand what he meant,

在我们完全理解他的意思前
we have no reason to either accept or reject his argument.

我们没有理由赞成或反对他的论点
The first point worth noting about this,

第一点对于这完全没有价值
is that Aristotle did not simply assume

亚里士多德不是简单地假定