Defending Marx's Labor Theory

Arendt pointed out that Marx was the first to consider the question of the liberation of the working class.In her view,Marx's celebration of labor upended the western political tradition and made this era different from the past.Nevertheless,Arendt did not accept Marx's position on labor.She believed that political action began on the basis that people got rid of subsistence activities,while Marx's concept of labor meant that all people should become laborers.Arendt's criticism of Marx is mainly as follows:first,Marx's view of labor ignores the distinction between labor and work;Second,Marx's view of labor increases the suppression of necessity on people.Based on Arendt's criticism of Marx's labor view,this paper explores the connotation and significance of Marx's labor view.The main idea of this paper is to defend Marx's view oflabor.To understand Marx's view of labor,we need to start from different dimensions.From the perspective of philosophy: labor is not outside of people,but belongs to people.Labor is the way of human existence,but also the essential characteristics of human;From the perspective of history:labor is the premise of human history.The first historical activity of human beings is to meet people's needs for survival,such as food,clothing,housing and transportation.From the perspective of political economy,labor is the source of all values and the measure of the exchange value of all commodities.Labor,therefore,is a common attribute used by countless economists to understand social wealth.Marx's view of labor contains the changes of human nature,historyand freedom.First of all,Marx's view of labor regards labor as the essence of human being,and the overcoming of labor alienation is the overcoming of the alienation of human nature.Secondly,Marx's view of labor means to understand the history from the development history of labor,rather than to explore the secrets of social history from places other than labor.In labor created the human history,rather than Hegel's absolute spirit made history,also is not the abstract rational made history.Finally,Marx's view of labor believes that labor is free,and the realization of human freedom is not only not far from labor,but also in labor,and human freedom is the freedom of labor.Marx's view of labor further puts forward the way to realize human's freedom.