Editing Abstract and concrete labor

'''''Abstract labor''''' and '''''concrete labor''''' are terms used by Karl Marx in his analysis of [[political economy]].  They are not different kinds of labor but different ways of looking at labor.<ref>Simon Mohun, "Abstract labour", in Tom Bottomore, ed. ''A Dictionary of Marxist Thought'' (Blackwell: 1991)
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Concrete labor is labor viewed with respect to its particular type or, as Marx says, with respect to "its aim, mode of operation, subject, means, and result."<ref>''Capital'' v. 1, ch. 1, section 2.
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Abstract labor, on the other hand, is labor considered apart from its specific characteristics or, as Marx says, it is "the expenditure of human labor power in general."<ref>''Capital,'' v. 1, ch. 1, section 2.
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Shoemaking, tailoring, and carpentry, viewed as concrete labor, are different; but viewed as abstract labor they are all the same. Viewed as abstract labor they are just, as Marx puts it, "each a productive expenditure of some quantity of human brains, nerves and muscles."<ref>''Capital,'' v. 1, ch. 1, section 2.
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The term "abstract labor" is roughly equivalent to "usefully expended human energy."

The place in ''Capital'' where Marx discusses abstract and concrete labor most  fully is section 2 of chapter 1. The section is entitled "The Two-Fold Character of the Labor Embodied in Commodities."

Abstract labor is an important concept in economics because the abstract labor embodied in all commodities is qualitatively the same, it differs from one commodity to another only in amount. Thus commodities can be compared or related to each other based on the amount of abstract labor used in producing them. This can lead to a [[labor theory of value]] in which the value of a commodity is defined as the amount of abstract labor embodied in it. (More precisely, Marx defined the value of a commodity as the amount of ''socially necessary'' abstract labor embodied in it, the term "socially necessary" being added so that if an unnecessarily large amount of labor is used in making the commodity -- time wasted -- that does not add to its value.)

Marx distinguished between value, as defined above, and ''use-value,'' which is the usefulness of a commodity. He connected concrete labor with the production of use-value and abstract labor with the production of value. The concluding paragraph of section 2 of chapter 1 of ''Capital'' makes that point:
{{Citation|On the one hand all labour is, speaking physiologically, an expenditure of human labour-power, and in its character of identical abstract human labour, it creates and forms the value of commodities. On the other hand, all labour is the expenditure of human labour-power in a special form and with a definite aim, and in this, its character of concrete useful labour, it produces use-values.}}
(Note that a brief definition of "labor-power" is ''the capacity of a human to do work.'')

==References==

==Other works==
* John Eaton, 1966. ''Political Economy: A Marxist Textbook'' (International Publishers). See the section, "Abstract and Concrete Labor" in Chapter 2: "Commodity Production." The book is available free online from Marxists.org 

[[Category:Marxist economics]] [[Category:Political economy]] [[Category:Labor]]