Intellectual and manual labour a critique of epistemology download

Sohn-Rethel argues that the division of intellectual and manual labour arose in tandem with the appropriation of surplus via exploitation in the first class societies in the Bronze Age.

His historical schemas argue that these phenomena increased during the age of the Pharaohs, but that it was classical Hellenic society where real and conceptual abstraction first developed. This part also accounts for the medieval mode of production, the transition to and the development of capitalism, capitalist technology and bourgeois scientific thought. Rather than using these technologies in an instrumental manner for appropriation and exacerbating the division of hand and head, Sohn-Rethel argues that this curse can be overcome by using technological automation in a communist society based on social production that consciously overcomes the division between head and hand.

Perhaps in part due to the peculiar structure of the book, its idiosyncrasies, or the particular focal points of already existent Marxian discourses, the reception of Intellectual and Manual Labour tended to focus on specific aspects rather than his overall critical social theory. These aspects of Intellectual and Manual Labour were likewise the focus of debates in Germany and Italy. Moore 21 have used the idea to develop notions of gender, race, and nature as real abstractions.

Christian Lotz and Werner Bonefeld have likewise used the concept in their critical theoretical work. To do so, I draw on Reinfeld and Slater , p. Bahr, Kapefer and other important contributions from these Italian and German debates were translated in Slater ed. Reference Works. Primary source collections. Open Access Content. Contact us. Sales contacts. Publishing contacts. Social Media Overview.

Terms and Conditions. Privacy Statement. Login to my Brill account Create Brill Account. Author: Alfred Sohn-Rethel. Translator: Martin Sohn-Rethel. Free access. Full Text. The main body of the book turns to substantiate these and related claims, in different parts. Influence Perhaps in part due to the peculiar structure of the book, its idiosyncrasies, or the particular focal points of already existent Marxian discourses, the reception of Intellectual and Manual Labour tended to focus on specific aspects rather than his overall critical social theory.

Save Cite Email this content Share link with colleague or librarian You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Social Sciences. Critical Social Sciences. Table of Contents. Sign in to annotate. Delete Cancel Save. Cancel Save. View Expanded. View Table. Read it and be blessed. The intellectual labour of the petite bourgeoisie is dominant in relation to the manual labour of the working class in the capitalist productive process.

This domination is the effect of the mode of development of productive forces in Author : G. Because of this way of thinking, many who could invest their lives usefully doing some manual labour run away from it, or do it with shame and a sense of failure. Critical social Studies Critique of Philosophical Epistemology. The Fetishism of Intellectual Labour. Can there be Abstraction other than by Thought? Critical social Studies. Knowledge, Theory of 2. Marxian economics I.

Title II. Critique of Philosophical Epistemology. Annotated by Erik Empson. I finally finished a long manuscript, 'Intellectual and Manual Labour', in, which despite strenuous efforts by Thomson and Bernal, was turned down by the publishers Lawrence Wishart as being too unorthodox for them, and by bourgeois publishers as being too militantly Marxist!

Until only three small texts of mine were published. What are the social implications and economics of a technology which tends to absorb the work of human labour? Does this technology widen or narrow the gulf between mental and manual labour? Does it help or hinder a socialist revolution?