| This question <158-4|167-1> overall <160|161> Boar: <153|161-1>. |
| Exam Question 89: 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. |
| [160-2] Boar: Marx says abstract human labor is the expenditure of the human brain nerves and muscles. Marx gives an example of this by showing that a chemist first thinks something in his mind. He may think that the combination of certain atoms will in turn make a common element. After the thinking, or using his brain, the “abstraction” can become a reality. |
| I will further demonstrate what abstract human labor is by giving a personal example. Years ago my father and I constructed a miniature pinewood car for a race. My father was the brain behind the production, he came up with the aerodynamic design, the size and weight. I on the other hand did the physical work, the sanding and painting. According to Marx, the abstract labor involved would have been my fathers brain who came up with the “abstraction” of what the design and dynamics of the car would be and then the physical labor I put into it. |
| Hans: The physical labor you put in is abstract labor too. It is called abstract labor not because it creates abstractions, but because it uses human faculties, physical and mental ones, like every other labor. |
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