This week you have a very short reading from Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, the chapter entitled “Estranged Labour.” The reading, though quite brief, can be challenging, so you might want to listen to my lecture before posting on the board.
For Marx, abstract labour is any work you do that you do only for a wage. For example, I’m a teacher. I get paid to do this. But I get a lot more out of it than just money. I like my work and have a lot of fun doing it. So my work as a teacher would not qualify as abstract labour. I’ve worked many horrible office jobs in my lifetime—those ALL were examples of abstract labour. I did them only for pay; I got nothing else out of those jobs. Marx says that in conditions of abstract labour, humans experience a variety of kinds of alienation (described in detail in the lecture for this week).
Describe one or more forms of alienation you or someone you know may have experienced as a result of abstract labour. How does this idea of alienation (for you) in particular relate to our topic for this course: having a body?
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