Marx writes about the relationship of process and product:
In the labour-process, therefore, man’s activity, with the help
of the instruments of labour, effects an alteration, designed from the
commencement, in the material worked upon. The process disappears in the
product, the latter is a use-value, Nature’s material adapted by a change
of form to the wants of man. Labour has incorporated itself with its subject:
the former is materialised, the latter transformed. That which in the labourer
appeared as movement, now appears in the product as a fixed quality without
motion. The blacksmith forges and the product is a forging.
Im Arbeitsprozess bewirkt also die Tätigkeit des Menschen durch das Arbeitsmittel eine von vornherein bezweckte Veränderung des Arbeitsgegenstandes. Der Prozess erlischt im Produkt. Sein Produkt ist ein Gebrauchswert, ein durch Formveränderung menschlichen Bedürfnissen angeeigneter Naturstoff. Die Arbeit hat sich mit ihrem Gengenstand verbunden. Sie ist vergegenständlicht, und der Gegenstand ist verarbeitet. Was auf seiten des Arbeiters in form der Unruhe erschien, erscheint nun als ruhende Eigenschaft, in der Form des Seins, auf seiten des Produkts. Er hat gesponnen und das Produkt ist ein Gespinst. (195)
Así, pues, en el proceso de trabajo la actividad del ser humano actúa a través del medio de trabajo una alteración previamente intencionada del objeto del trabajo. El proceso se apaga en el producto. su producto es un valor de uso, una materia natural adecuada a necesidades humanas mediante una alteración de forma. El trabajo se ha unido a su objeto. Lo que por el lado del trabajador se presentaba en la forma de la agitación aparece ahora, por el lado del producto, como propiedad quieta, en la forma del ser. El trabajador hiló, y el producto es un hilado. (196/197)
Observe the very free translation into english, changing the example from spinning to forging.
Here Marx writes about the dialectics betweent things and processes. Things are objectivations. Note, that this is not the same as reification, but objectivation seems to be a precondition for reification.
Think about examples closer to your everyday life, for example the realtionship between learning and exam.
Does not passing the exam mean that you have learned nothing (or not enough) ? Does passing the exam mean that you have learnt anything (or that you have learned enough)? When we fail in an exam we usualy think that we have not learned enough. We usualy consider the exam (a product) as a proxy to (the process of) learning.
Marx would probably say that an exam is a temporary cristalization of the learning process.
12/17/12
Consciousness and social existence
Marx writes about the relationship of physical work and consciousness:
But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.
Was aber von vonrherein den schlechtesten Baumeister vor der besten Biene auzeichnet, ist, dass er die Zelle in seinem Kopf gebaut hat bevor er sie in Wachs baut. (193).
Pero lo que ya por anticipado dinstingue al peor arquitecto de la abjera mejor es que el arquitecto construye la celdilla en su cabeza antes de construirla con cera. (194)
Is it here the consciousness that determines the social existence? This seems to contradict what Marx writes in his earlier writings that the social existence determines the consciousness.
However, dialectics is fare more complicate than the verb "to determine" can make us believe. For Marx idea and world are inseparable. Social, material crisis can produce a pressure towards ideas and consciousness which again can change the world. By thinking or acting we change the world and ourselves which again changes what we think or do.
But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.
Was aber von vonrherein den schlechtesten Baumeister vor der besten Biene auzeichnet, ist, dass er die Zelle in seinem Kopf gebaut hat bevor er sie in Wachs baut. (193).
Pero lo que ya por anticipado dinstingue al peor arquitecto de la abjera mejor es que el arquitecto construye la celdilla en su cabeza antes de construirla con cera. (194)
Is it here the consciousness that determines the social existence? This seems to contradict what Marx writes in his earlier writings that the social existence determines the consciousness.
However, dialectics is fare more complicate than the verb "to determine" can make us believe. For Marx idea and world are inseparable. Social, material crisis can produce a pressure towards ideas and consciousness which again can change the world. By thinking or acting we change the world and ourselves which again changes what we think or do.
Nature and Labour
Max says about the relation of labour and the human nature:
By thus acting on the external world and changing it, he at the same time changes his own nature. He develops his slumbering powers and compels them to act in obedience to his sway. We are not now dealing with those primitive instinctive forms of labour that remind us of the mere animal.
Indem er durch diese Bewegung auf die Natur ausser ihm wirkt und sie verändert, verändert er zugleich seine eigne Natur. Er entwickelt die in ihr schlummernden Potenzen und unterwirft das Spiel ihrer Kräfte seiner eignen Botmässigkeit. Wir haben es hir nicht mit den ersten tierartig instinktmässigen Formen der Arbeit zu tun. (192)
Mediante ese movimiento obra en la naturaleza externa a él y la altera, y así altera al mismo tiempo su propia naturaleza. Desarrolla las potencias que dormían en ella y somete a su propio dominio el funcionamiento de sus fuerzas. No nos interesan aquí las primeras fomras de trabajo, animalescamente instintivas. (193)
a) It seems like Marx is changing his argument. Instead of using bourgeois categories, here it seems he is using labour as timeless category.
b) However, labour also depends on the historical context, as labour changes nature (and human "inner" nature).
c) There are very different connotations in the word "labour" in Europe. Marx intellectually comes from a Lutheran tradition. The protestant tradition of England often has a more funcionalistic relation to work. And the catholic tradition is far from conceding labour the same moral role as in the german tradition. Think about german words like "Beruf" which links work to an almost divine mission in comparison to the english word "job" used also in the rest of the world to describe work which is done whithout deeper inner relationship to the work.
d) Although Marx, by insisting that work is somehow natural, he argues agains utopians like Fourier who think that work could be pure joy and pleasure, in his (Lutheran) tradition the idea of "joy of work" (Arbeitsfreude) is quite deep rooted. Huge parts of the struggle for un-alienated work can only be understood when supposing that work should and could be joyfull.
By thus acting on the external world and changing it, he at the same time changes his own nature. He develops his slumbering powers and compels them to act in obedience to his sway. We are not now dealing with those primitive instinctive forms of labour that remind us of the mere animal.
Indem er durch diese Bewegung auf die Natur ausser ihm wirkt und sie verändert, verändert er zugleich seine eigne Natur. Er entwickelt die in ihr schlummernden Potenzen und unterwirft das Spiel ihrer Kräfte seiner eignen Botmässigkeit. Wir haben es hir nicht mit den ersten tierartig instinktmässigen Formen der Arbeit zu tun. (192)
Mediante ese movimiento obra en la naturaleza externa a él y la altera, y así altera al mismo tiempo su propia naturaleza. Desarrolla las potencias que dormían en ella y somete a su propio dominio el funcionamiento de sus fuerzas. No nos interesan aquí las primeras fomras de trabajo, animalescamente instintivas. (193)
a) It seems like Marx is changing his argument. Instead of using bourgeois categories, here it seems he is using labour as timeless category.
b) However, labour also depends on the historical context, as labour changes nature (and human "inner" nature).
c) There are very different connotations in the word "labour" in Europe. Marx intellectually comes from a Lutheran tradition. The protestant tradition of England often has a more funcionalistic relation to work. And the catholic tradition is far from conceding labour the same moral role as in the german tradition. Think about german words like "Beruf" which links work to an almost divine mission in comparison to the english word "job" used also in the rest of the world to describe work which is done whithout deeper inner relationship to the work.
d) Although Marx, by insisting that work is somehow natural, he argues agains utopians like Fourier who think that work could be pure joy and pleasure, in his (Lutheran) tradition the idea of "joy of work" (Arbeitsfreude) is quite deep rooted. Huge parts of the struggle for un-alienated work can only be understood when supposing that work should and could be joyfull.
11/15/12
Nature
Section 3, Chapter 5.1 [Chapter Seven]
Marx thought labour as process of Nature. He depends of Nature concept. (In Risk-society the concept of crisis becomes problematic.
Labour is, in the first place, a process in which both man and
Nature participate, and in which man of his own accord starts, regulates,
and controls the material re-actions between himself and Nature. He opposes
himself to Nature as one of her own forces, setting in motion arms and
legs, head and hands, the natural forces of his body, in order to appropriate
Nature’s productions in a form adapted to his own wants.
Die Arbeit ist zunächst ein Prozeß zwischen Mensch und Natur, ein
Prozeß, worin der Mensch seinen Stoffwechsel mit der Natur durch seine
eigne Tat vermittelt, regelt und kontrolliert. Er tritt dem Naturstoff
selbst als eine Naturmacht gegenüber. Die seiner Leiblichkeit
angehörigen Naturkräfte, Arme und Beine, Kopf und Hand, setzt er in
Bewegung, um sich den Naturstoff in einer für sein eignes Leben
brauchbaren Form anzueignen. (S. 192)
El trabajo social es, por de pronto, un proceso entre ser humano y naturaleza, un proceso en el cual el ser humano media, regula y controla, mediante su propia actividad su metabolismo con la naturaleza. El ser humano se enfrenta con la materia natural en una forma utilizable para su propia vida. (p. 193)
11/2/12
Capitalist class
Section 2, Chapter 4.2 [Chapter Five]
Marx says about capitalist class:
The capitalist class, as a whole, in any country,
cannot over-reach themselves.
Die Gesamtheit der Kapitalistenklasse eines Landes kann sich nicht selbst übervorteilen. (S. 177)
La totalidad de la clase de los capitalistas de un país no puede perjudicarse a sí misma. (p. 178)
The value is the subject
Section 2 Chapter 4.1
Value adds surplus-value, value is the subject.
For the movement, in the course of which it [value] adds surplus-value, is its own movement, its expansion, therefore, is automatic expansion. Because it is value, it has acquired the occult quality of being able to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.
Denn die Bewegung, worin er [Wert] Mehrwert zusetzt, ist seine eigne Bewegung, seine Verwertung also Selbstverwertung. Er hat die okkulte Qualität erhalten, Wert zu setzen, weil er Wert ist. Er wirft lebendige Junge oder legt wenigstens goldne Eier. (S. 169)
Pues el movimiento en el cual [el valor] echa plusvalía es movimiento propio suyo, y valorización es, por lo tanto, autovalorización. El valor posee la oculta cualidad de engordar el valor porque es valor. Pare retoños vivos, o, por lo menos, huevos de oro. (p. 169)
Value adds surplus-value, value is the subject.
For the movement, in the course of which it [value] adds surplus-value, is its own movement, its expansion, therefore, is automatic expansion. Because it is value, it has acquired the occult quality of being able to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.
Denn die Bewegung, worin er [Wert] Mehrwert zusetzt, ist seine eigne Bewegung, seine Verwertung also Selbstverwertung. Er hat die okkulte Qualität erhalten, Wert zu setzen, weil er Wert ist. Er wirft lebendige Junge oder legt wenigstens goldne Eier. (S. 169)
Pues el movimiento en el cual [el valor] echa plusvalía es movimiento propio suyo, y valorización es, por lo tanto, autovalorización. El valor posee la oculta cualidad de engordar el valor porque es valor. Pare retoños vivos, o, por lo menos, huevos de oro. (p. 169)
Dialectics
Section 2, Chapter 4.1
Another exemple of dialectics. Value requires some independent form (alterity). By this way reaches its identity.
Value, therefore, being the active factor in such a process, and
assuming at one time the form of money, at another that of commodities,
but through all these changes preserving itself and expanding, it requires
some independent form, by means of which its identity may at any time be
established. And this form it possesses only in the shape of money.
Als das übergreifende Subjekt eines solchen Prozesses, worin er Geldform
und Warenform bald annimmt, bald abstreift, sich aber in diesem Wechsel
erhält und ausreckt, bedarf der Wert vor allem einer selbständigen
Form, wodurch seine Identität mit sich selbst konstatiert wird. Und
diese Form besitzt er nur im Gelde. (S. 169)
Como sujeto dominante y abarcante de ese proceso en el que ahora toma la forma dinero y la forma mercancía, ahora las abandona, pero manteniéndose y estirándose en ese cambio, el valor necesita ante todo una forma autónoma mediante la cual se comprueba su identidad consigo mismo. Sólo en el dinero tiene esa forma. (p. 169)
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