Examining Arendt’s Interpretation Of Marx’s Labor Theory

Labor issues play a very important role in Marx’s philosophy. The concept of labor has rich connotations. It contains not only abstract labor from the perspective of anthropology, but also concrete labor in the aspect of history. The former refers to objectified labor, which means humans’ transformation and occupation of nature and is also the material basis for humans’survival and development, and it distinguishes humans from animals. The latter means the specific forms of labor in different historical conditions. What Marx most cares about is the formation, evolution and elimination of wage labor that is the form of labor in the capitalist society.Hannah Arendt discusses Marx’s labor theory for the sake of her study. In her opinion, Marx’s labor theory has challenged the tradition of western political thought, for when claiming that labor creates humans, he speaks very highly of labor in sharp contrast to the labor despised in ancient. Meanwhile she finds that his concept of labor is inconsistent. On one hand, Marx treats labor as an eternal necessity imposed by nature; on the other hand, he thinks that the realm of freedom in fact begins only where labor, conditioned by need and exterior usefulness, ends. And it is, in her view, Marx’s emphasis on freedom that brings about the contradictions of his theory. As to the visions of future in his theory, Arendt questions whether there is possibility to abolish labor in the future and whether the development of labor productivity will bring humans freedom. What she has discussed above was from the perspective of her own theory. Assuming the distinction between labor and work, she thinks labor is an essential activity serving the survival of humans, namely life itself, hence belonging to the private realm. As a result, the condition in which labor is enslaved by necessity would exist for ever. Related to labor, work aims to create the objectivity of a world, between men and nature, which, in some sense, provides the necessary public space for action. Actually, to act is the real purport of Arendt’s labor theory. Through speech and action, men show who they are to others and thus make their appearance in the human world. However, the arrangement of hierarchical order within the vita active has greatly changed since the modern time, and finally labor is elevated to the highest position with the emancipation of labor, which just results in a consumers’society.In fact, labor issues play different roles between Marx’s and Arendt’s philosophies. Labor theory is the core of Marx’s theory; by comparison, it only serves as the basis of Arendt’s action theory. And based on the respective theoretical frameworks, there are diverse meanings about the concept of labor. The reason why Arendt agrees on the viewpoint that Marx’s labor theory, to a large extent, truly describes the situation of modern society while rejecting the conclusion drawn from his theory is that ultimately the opinions on freedom between them, as thinkers, are definitely different. Marx bases his views about liberty on the highly developed labor productivity; freedom means all-round development of individuals. But Arendt’s opinion about freedom is closely linked with that about politics; to be free and to act are the same. Unluckily, the dual evolutions of freedom and politics in modern society have lost the realistic foundation to realize freedom in Arendt’s thoughts.