| This question <105|28> overall <108|110> Hans: <108|111>. |
| Exam Question 84: 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. |
| [109] Hans: Abstract Labor Angus wrote in [105]: |
| Abstract labor by its nature is homogeneous and not directly observable. |
| Why do you say it is not directly obervable? Because it is an aspect of every actual labor process but cannot exist separately from concreate labor? |
| It refers to the expenditure of brain, muscles, nerves etc on a commodity. |
| Yes, this is the answer. This sentence alone would have counted as a correct answer in the Exam. Marx calls it homogeneous because people can do many different jobs: although there is a lot of difference in the different jobs, there is not that much difference between what different people are able to do. |
| Homogeneous (abstract) labor is therefore the labor that forms the substance of value. |
| Here you are going into the part of the question which you were not supposed to answer: the significance of abstract labor in our society. |
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