| This question <40|46> overall <44|46> Beaver: <330-6|59>. |
| Exam Question 66: What is abstract human labor? I want you to say what it is, not what its significance is in commodity-producing society! These are two different questions. |
| [45] Beaver: What is abstract human labor? Abstract human labor is labor which comes up in one's mind when generally and abstractly considered. Since it is abstract labor considered without referring to any particular example of labor, the concrete substance of labor, for example, time spent, amount consumed, or quality, will not make any difference. That is to say, human abstract labor is labor as an expenditure of physiological energy, such as human brain, nerves, or muscles, and it becomes the social content of commodity value. |
| Hans: Time spent and amount consumed would be classified by Marx as qualities of abstract labor. Abstraction is here not only a thought process but a real social process. Your last sentence is right, but it does not follow from the preceding two sentences, it rather contradicts it. |
| There were already two very good contributions about this topic, messages [31] and [40]. Had you read those I think your answer would have come out much better. |
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