| This question <107|107> overall <102|104> Searose: <653|143>. graded A |
| Question 223: What is an “essential” property of something? What can be said in support of Marx's claim that labor is “essentially” expenditure of human brain, nerves, muscles, sense organs, etc.? |
| [103] Searose: The essential property of something is the property in which without it that “thing” would not exist. |
| “Essentially” is the adverb associated with the word essense, for which the Webster dictionary provides almost a half page of explanations. For our purpose “the element indispensable or necessary to the nature of something ... something belonging to or forming part of something else ... something indispensable” is the meaning in which we focus. |
| With the word “essentially” in “it is essentially expenditure...” Marx asserts that in the labor process the expenditure (or use) of human brain, nerves, muscles, sense organs, etc., is an absolute necessity of the process itself and does not happen by chance or choices. This translates into the fact that the use of our physical body (i.e. physical movement, work) is always required in the production process. So, the production process does not work without the expenditure of human brain, nerves, muscles, sense organs, etc. The human use of those things in the production process is what gives “value” to the products (commodity). (Will expand answer later) |
| Hans: Your definition is not quite right. An essential property of a dog is a property possessed by dogs which is such that any animal which does not have this property is not a dog. (But the animal without that property can still exist.) |
|
|
|||||