Philosophy and the Denial of the Value of Labor

Abstract

The story told about Thales falling into a well and being mocked by a servant exhibits a relation of philosophy to labor. On the one hand, the story depicts that stupidity of the philosopher in relation to the practical world. On the other hand, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle insist that philosophical reflection is required even in, and perhaps especially in, the world of everyday practice. This tension is turned into a method that Marx calls materialism, a method in which philosophical abstraction and reflection is required in order to “rise to the level of the concrete.”