This article problematizes Marx's theory of labour. It shows that Marx's understanding of labour is not a coherent and uncontradictory whole, but contains varying, sometimes incommensurable moments. The thesis says that Marx analyzes labour as a structure of mediation. This is the case regardless if he refers to labour as mediation between man and nature on a more abstract philosophical level, or, on the contrary, stresses its concrete historical character, where the self-movement of capital is mediated by labour. Returning to Marx's theoretical legacy, I show how, beyond his multidimensional reflections on labor,this specific view of labour as a mediator persists. The purpose of the distinction between multiple levels of analysis in Marx's work is to explicate the boundaries of his concept of labour. In the spirit of Weber's ‘disenchantment of the world’ it may be asserted that Marx reduces labor to its ‘disenchanted’ form. Moreover, the article argues that it is possible to conceptualise other forms of labour via engaging with and against Marx's work,where those other forms are relegated solely a secondary status. The latter will be done by juxtaposing Marx's notions to the concepts of the theory of the mediating structures and its organon – the non-classical dialectical logic developed by the Institute for Critical Theories of Supermodernity.
Tanya Orbova (Fri,) studied this question.