Lecture 2 - Marx

Question 1

Different aspects of assembly line

Answer 1

• Division of labour, specialization
• Different steps are codependent
• Specific aspects of worker become less important, techne itself is less difficult (skilled labourer becomes unskilled kinda?)

Question 2

Two principal marxist conceptions of machine

Answer 2

• Social subjection to machine (Marx) and machinic enslavement (Guattari)
• Co-operation: technology is also necessary for social change, meaning revolution. Absence of technology is not what orthodox Marxist theory entails (Marx)

Question 3

Social change according to marx

Answer 3

• Problematizing the process of alienation: this is a critique on industrialization, from which he urges the emergence of the concept of labour as a social process
• Capitalism as a political economy: is not a state of nature, construct of opposing forces which form this political economy (and other aspects of life, called a superstructure)
• Superstructure is a way of keeping people in same situation (read: oppressed), because its in every part of life and so inescapable, like an ideology.
• Way out of alienation is not a new philosophical interpretation, but a new society

Question 4

Types of value

Answer 4

Use-value: its capacity to be deployed
Exchange value: value for which acommodity could be exchanged for other things
Surplus value: value which the owner reaps of labor from the worker

Question 5

What is a machine?

Answer 5

• Any artificial contrivance for performing work
• Hierarchization of the machine in terms of functionality and exploitation to increase productivity
• Marx Grundrisse: labor as simple tool  fixed capital, namely technical machines
• Machine is what makes labor fit into capitalism, changes relationship of laborer to commodity
• Difference tool and machine: not human implements but implements of a mechanism: tools make the worker independent, machinery makes worker dependent Meaning the artisan is independent with his tools, the factory worker is dependent on entire factory

Question 6

Role of machine in das kapital:

Answer 6

• Not to lighten toil, like mill said
• Marx: by shortening portion of day in which worker works for himself, capitalism lengthens the portion he gives to capitalist  machinery is a means for producing surplus value

Question 7

Fixed capital is not a static value:

Answer 7

• Fixed capital in not a static value in itself but in movement: it is actively involved in the creation of surplus value through its use in production. Its value is realized over time through its contribution to the commodities produced, rather than existing as a static, unchanging asset.

Question 8

What gives value to commodity?

Answer 8

Only labor gives value to commodity, not machine itself but laborer with machine via labor

Question 9

Transformation of labor into fixed capital

Answer 9

-means of labor (integrated into the capitalist production process) become machinery.
- The machine is not just a tool; most advanced form of the means of labor in capitalism.
- This machine consists of numerous mechanical and intellectual organs, so that the workers themselves are merely its conscious linkages
- Use value of means of labour becomes being fixed capital and therefore serves the capital

Question 10

Alienation

Answer 10

• Machine possesses skill and strength instead of laborer
• Workers activity is reduced to a mere abstraction of activity, is regulated by machine

Question 11

Social dimension of machines

Answer 11

• Accumulation of knowledge and skill, using the social brain, is absorbed into capital, attribute of fixed capital, machinery becomes the thinking thing. .
• General social labor presents itself not in labor but in capital
• Alienates social science from the people

Question 12

Openings: fixed capital

Answer 12

: fixed capital increases in proportion to the development of large industry’s productive forces. Every interruption of the production process acts as a direct reduction of capital itself, of its initial value: the overpowering of living labor by fixed capital (through machinery) makes production process vulnerable (think strike, revolution etc)

Question 13

Openings: co-operation

Answer 13

co-operation in factory is a social productive power of labor, development of capability of species

Question 14

Openings: automated undoing

Answer 14

appropriation of human labor creates capital, however through automation the fraction of human labor in production process becomes smaller, making labor time a bad measure for value

Question 15

Openings: free development of individuals

Answer 15

the general reduction of the necessary labor of society to a minimum, which then corresponds to the artistic, scientific etc. development of the individuals in the time set free
 Contradiction: strives to make labor time minimum, but labor time is sole measure and source of wealth

Question 16

Openings: social character of knowledge

Answer 16

technological advancements (developed within the capitalist system) can ultimately help pave the way for a transformation of social relations, possibly towards a communist society where the “general intellect” plays a central role in shaping human life

Question 17

Capitals tendency:

Answer 17

To increase the productive forces of labor while reducing the amount of necessary labor required to sustain the worker.
* This drive leads to the transformation of the means of labor into machinery, which allows capital to harness greater productivity from workers while minimizing their role in the value-creation process.
* The introduction of machinery and technological advancements is inevitable consequence of capital’s need to expand and intensify production.

Question 18

Fixed capital:

Answer 18

• Long term assets used in production, which are not consumed immediately in the production process but used over longer period (as opposed to circulating capital)
• Consumes itself during production: slowly loses value to products its making
• Use value of fixed capital is that it eats itself up
• Fixed capital is used only as a means—it exists to assist the transformation of raw materials into finished products
• 2 types of use value in fixed capital:
  o Technological condition: create conditions necessary but don’t directly affect raw materials
  o Direct condition of production: instrumental machines, affect raw materials

Question 19

Initial 3 elements of labor process

Answer 19

• Material of labour
• Means of labour
• Living labour
• These merge as a moving unity in production process, product represents their static unity
• While these elements are essential in the material process of production, their role in the capitalist mode of production is to serve capital’s goal of creating surplus value

Question 20

Relate machinery to techne

Answer 20

With means of labor, the workers activity is transmitted to the object. With machinery however, the machines work is transmitted, the worker is only a supervisor. This gives a complete transformation of the Aristotelian conception of techne and of craft-knowledge in terms of the relation between producer and product.

Question 21

Objectified vs living labor

Answer 21

• In a system dominated by machinery, objectified labor (in the form of machines) confronts and dominates living labor. The machine embodies past labor that has been transformed into an independent productive force, no longer controlled by the worker.
• Machinery becomes an extension of capital’s power, dominating and subordinating living labor within the production process. The worker is reduced to a mere operator of the machinery, performing tasks such as supervision and maintenance rather than directly controlling production.

Question 22

Fixed vs circulating capital

Answer 22

Fixed capital, embodied in machinery, is crucial for increasing productivity and reducing necessary labor. However, it is also tied to specific use values (e.g., a machine that only performs one task), which means it is less flexible than circulating capital.
Circulating capital is more adaptable and fluid, representing capital’s ability to take on different forms (e.g., money, commodities, labor) and remain indifferent to any specific use value. In this sense, circulating capital better embodies the concept of capital as an abstract force that can constantly transform and expand.

Question 23

Labor

Answer 23

the aggregate of those mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a use-value of any description.

Question 24

Abstract labor

Answer 24

sum of all labor, basis of wages, not concrete and therefore chronological approach not useful

Question 25

Material of labour

Answer 25

raw material): material is also product of labor: all the material means for production (link to techne by Aristotle)

Question 26

Means of labor

Answer 26

aid for labor, and transforms it

Question 27

Living labor

Answer 27

labor of humans by use of their bodily functions

Question 28

Fixed capital

Answer 28

assets and capital investments such as property, equipment etc for capitalist production

Question 29

Variable capital

Answer 29

Labor

Question 30

Circulating capital

Answer 30

short-lived items that are used in production