Abstract
After 1848, Marx’s work begins to be influenced by political economy’s treatment of machines and by the related energeticist concepts of the nascent science of thermodynamics. These influences shape and trans- form some of Marx’s basic premises about the interaction between human beings and the natural world. This transformation changes the meaning of two basic concepts of Marx’s later political philosophy: the concept of labor, or work, and the concept of revolution. In this later political philosophy, Marx’s key concepts are themselves undergoing a revision of sense.
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© 2009 Amy E. Wendling
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Wendling, A.E. (2009). Machines and the Transformation of Work. In: Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230233997_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230233997_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-30939-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-23399-7
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