A Historical Materialist Critique Of Arendt’s Concept On Labor

The concept of labour is a prerequisite presence in Arendt’s system of thought,necessary and fundamental,but not essential and central.She was surprised by the reverence for labour in modern society and puzzled and dissatisfied by Marx’s account of it,so she decided to construct a new theoretical system to redefine the status of labour.The theoretical construction of Arendt’s concept of labour was shaped by three factors.Firstly,the influence of the ancient Greek tradition of political thought that Arendt valued,especially Aristotle,and secondly,the influence of Marx’s theory of the elevated status of labour.Finally,the social context also influenced Arendt’s view of labour:Arendt saw in the repetition,uniformity and inevitability of labour the shades of totalitarianism,which Arendt,who had experienced totalitarian rule first-hand,was terrified of,while the emergence of the social sphere and the value placed on consumption led her to fear that humanity would fall into a consumer society and thus all be in the grip of inevitability.Arendt’s discussion of the concept of labour differs from our usual perceptions in that she places it in a basic,bottom-line position,considering it to be an activity linked to the vitality of the human being,the satisfaction of bodily needs,always accompanied by pain and toil;it is an activity that is not free,highly repetitive and cyclical,a slave-like activity;and the products of labour cannot be preserved for long,making it the least cosmopolitan of activities.It is also the least cosmopolitan of activities.But because labour is a precondition for people to enter the public sphere of action,it cannot be abolished.Unlike labour,Arendt places action at the heart and forefront of the matter,and the two should be kept strictly separate as they belong to the private and public spheres,keeping the political sphere pure,where only speech and action can truly reveal the nature of man as a human being.A critical analysis of Arendt’s concept of labour shows that her failure to understand thoroughly the content of Marx’s concept of labour leads to a biased understanding of violent activities and acts of domination,and she even wrongly equates all Marxist ideas directly with Marx’s own,thus leading her to fail to truly understand the richness of labour,which also leads her to find an alternative way to critically create A new theoretical-practical framework-limiting the scope of labour to political action beyond necessity.But the kind of labour that Arendt restricted was also what Marx was trying to transcend,and the rigid view of history and sophistry was also what Marx criticised.In the final analysis Arendt and Marx share the same deep-seated point of view;they both strive to avoid the creation of totalitarianism and want to achieve the free and comprehensive development of man and the overall progress of society,and their respect for the value of the individual and their emphasis on free activity coincide.At the same time her critique,rescue and reflection on consumer society and technology in the context of the new era is a new development in the perspective of Marxist studies;her exposition of the path to a communist society complements and refines Marxist thought while reshaping the authority of the public political sphere.