| This question <44|44> overall <32|36> Gus: <324-12|91>. |
| Question 67: Did abstract human labor exist already prior to commodity production? |
| [35] Gus: Which came first, the abstraction or the production? Abstract human labour has the same relation to actual human labour that abstract cars have to the actual automobile which serves as your transportation. As an abstraction, cars can be thought of as a sum of all cars ever made and all which ever will be made. Your car, be it a Hyundai or a SAAB, is just one car or one product. Because of this distinction between abstract and actual labour, the answer to the question would be: Yes, it did exist prior to commodity production. Use of this definition necessitates that labour must be conceptualized before the actual production. |
| Another twist on which came first is discussed in the Introduction to our textbook. The concept that while commodity production is not new to capitalism, it was in its embryonic state in previous economic structures (p. 16). The embryonic state can in itself be an abstraction, a thought on the concept of commodity production. However, it is the more fully developed capitalist structure which has brought commodity production to the level which Marx is discussing. So, if capitalism has perfected commodity production, there have existed times when commodity production was not the strong force we are seeing, indeed it may not have played any part in the economic structure. In these times of negligible commodity production, it stands to reason that abstract commodity production has existed, i.e., the thought has to exist before the act. So, while not quite the chicken before the egg dilemma, I state that the thought or the abstraction can and did come before the act or the production. |
| Hans: I see your message as a case of thinking aloud, and I want to encourage that: you have some good thoughts, and Marx can only be understood by thinking through his concepts. But apparently you were not aware that Marx uses the term “abstract human labor” with a very specific meaning, and at the end you seem to be talking no longer about abstract labor but about the idea of commodity production. If you could get yourself to focus a little more on Marx's text and the precise Question asked, I think you would be able to make excellent contributions to this class. |
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