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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract and concrete labour | 2/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_and_concrete_labour | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:40:03.138517+00:00 | kb-cron |
"On the one hand all labour is, speaking physiologically, an expenditure of human labour power, and in its character of identical abstract human labour, it creates and forms the value of commodities. On the other hand, all labour is the expenditure of human labour power in a special form and with a definite aim, and in this, its character of concrete useful labour, it produces use values. ... At first sight a commodity presented itself to us as a complex of two things – use value and exchange value. Later on, we saw also that labour, too, possesses the same twofold nature; for, so far as it finds expression in value, it does not possess the same characteristics that belong to it as a creator of use values. I was the first to point out and to examine critically this twofold nature of the labour contained in commodities. ... this point is the pivot on which a clear comprehension of political economy turns"
== Abstract labour and exchange == Marx himself considered that all economising reduced to the economical use of human labour-time; "to economise" ultimately meant saving on human energy and effort. "The less time the society requires to produce wheat, cattle etc., the more time it wins for other production, material or mental. Just as in the case of an individual, the multiplicity of its development, its enjoyment and its activity depends on economization of time. Economy of time, to this all economy ultimately reduces itself. Society likewise has to distribute its time in a purposeful way, in order to achieve a production adequate to its overall needs; just as the individual has to distribute his time correctly in order to achieve knowledge in proper proportions or in order to satisfy the various demands on his activity." However, according to Marx, the achievement of abstract thinking about human labour, and the ability to quantify it, is closely related to the historical development of economic exchange in general, and more specifically commodity trade (the trade in wares and merchandise). The expansion of trade requires the ability to measure and compare all kinds of things - not just length, volume and weight, but also time itself. Originally, the units of measurement used were taken from everyday life—the length of a finger or limb, the volume of an ordinary container, the weight one can carry, the duration of a day or a season, the number of cattle. Socially standardized measurement units began to be used probably from circa 3000 BC onwards in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and then state authorities began to supervise the use of measures, with rules to prevent cheating and swindling (for example, supplying false quantities, overcharging, failure to pay, or selling poor quality goods). In a biblical story where God delivers moral guidelines to Moses which people must follow, dishonest measures and mismeasurement are explicitly prohibited: “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights…" (Leviticus 19:35). Once standard measuring units existed, mathematics could begin to develop. In fact, Marx argues the abstraction of labour in thought is the reflex of a real process, in which commercial trade in products not only alters the way labour is viewed, but also how it is practically treated. In other words, when labour becomes a commercial object traded in the marketplace, then the form and content of work in the workplace is transformed as well, to conform to commercial requirements. This transformation is practically possible, because labour already contains the potential to adapt to the requirements of capitalist business. This potential has already been shaped up by previous schooling and training. But Marx also comments that "The productiveness of labour that serves as [the] foundation and starting-point of [Capital], is a gift, not of nature, but of a history embracing thousands of centuries." In other words, human work abilities are the result of a very lengthy evolutionary social process, in which humans acquire the capacities and dispositions to do all kinds of tasks to survive and prosper. If different products are exchanged in market trade according to specific trading ratios, Marx argues, the exchange process at the same time relates, values and commensurates the quantities of human labour expended to produce those products, regardless of whether the traders are consciously aware of that or not (see also value-form). Therefore, Marx implies, the exchange process itself involves the making of a real abstraction, namely abstraction from (or indifference to) the particular characteristics of concrete (specific) labour that produced the commodities whose value is equated in trade. At first, the relationship between quantities of traded commodities symbolically represents relative costs in labour time. This relationship is ordinarily quite transparent because goods are traded by the people who produced them. Next, money-prices begin to represent symbolically the commodities being traded. In this way, a system of symbolic representation emerges which can facilitate the exchange of the most diverse products with great efficiency. In the end, products as commodities become simply objects of value, and since their value can rise and fall, they can be bought and sold purely for capital gain. Closely related to this, is the growth of a cash economy, and Marx claims that: