Landmarks of Scientific Socialism: "Anti-Duehring"Engels, Friedrich
Philosophy
Landmarks of Scientific Socialism: "Anti-Duehring"
Engels, Friedrich
Dialectical materialism; Dühring, E. (Eugen), 1833-1921; Economics; Philosophy; Socialism
The Utopists were thoroughly aware of the effects of the division of
labor, of the effect on the one hand of crippling the worker and on
the other of crippling the work, the unavoidable result of the
lifelong, monotonous repetition of one and the same act. The rise of
the antagonism between town and country was regarded by Fourier as
well as Owen as the beginning of the rise of the old division of
labor. According to both of them the population should be divided into
groups of from six hundred to three thousand each, distributed over
the country. Each group has an enormous house in the midst of its
territory and the housekeeping is done in common. Fourier occasionally
speaks of towns but these only consist of four or five of the big
communal houses in close proximity to each other. By both of them the
work of society is divided into agriculture and industry. According to
Fourier, handwork and machine manufacture were both included in the
latter while Owen made the great industry play the most important
part, and the steam engine and machinery performed the work of the
community. But both in agriculture and manufacture the two writers
named gave the greatest possible variety of occupation to individuals,
and accordingly the education of the young provided for the most
universal technical training. Both of them think that there will be a
universal development of the human race as a result of a universal
practical participation in practical work, and that work will recover
its old attractiveness, which has been lost as a result of the
division of labor, by virtue of this variety and the shortening of the
time expended upon it.
* * * * *
Just as far as society obtains the domination of the social means of
production in order to organize them socially it abolishes the
existing servitude of man to his own means of production. Society
cannot be free without every member of society being free. The old
methods of production must be completely revolutionized and the old
form of the division of labor must be done away with above all. In its
place an organization of production will have to be made in which, on
the one hand, no single individual will be able to shift his share in
productive labor, in providing the essentials of human existence,
upon another, and on the other hand productive labor instead of being
a means of slavery will be a means towards human freedom, in that it
offers an opportunity to everyone to develop his full powers, physical
and intellectual, in every direction and to exercise them so that it
makes a pleasure out of a burden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account