The politics of the division of labour: Smith and Hegel on civil society

Democratization

Volumn 4, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 49-62

  Ioannidou, Anastasia ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 10844248112     PISSN: 13510347     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13510349708403501     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. For a historical account on the variations of the Adam Smith Problem see: A. Ioannidou, 'The Concept of the Division of Labour as the Link between A. Smith's and G.W.F. Hegel's Social Theory', Ph.D. thesis, Warwick (1996), Ch.IV, where I articulate the links between Smith as a moral theorist and political economist, and I argue that a mere opposition of the former to the latter overlooks Smith's social theory as critical and enlightenment thought.
2. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp.305-6. Jeremy Waldron distinguishes between special rights as opposed to general rights. For a comparison of Hegel's and Locke's theory of property see Waldron, The Right to Private Property (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988): See also Patricia H. Werhane, Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p.63 for a use of Locke's argument to illustrate the conflicts involved in the capitalist form of production.
3. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp.305-6. Jeremy Waldron distinguishes between special rights as opposed to general rights. For a comparison of Hegel's and Locke's theory of property see Waldron, The Right to Private Property (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988): See also Patricia H. Werhane, Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p.63 for a use of Locke's argument to illustrate the conflicts involved in the capitalist form of production.
4. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp.305-6. Jeremy Waldron distinguishes between special rights as opposed to general rights. For a comparison of Hegel's and Locke's theory of property see Waldron, The Right to Private Property (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988): See also Patricia H. Werhane, Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p.63 for a use of Locke's argument to illustrate the conflicts involved in the capitalist form of production.
5. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract and other Discourses (London: Everyman, 1990), p.94.
6. B. Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees. Vol. I edited by F.B. Kayne (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924), p.347; on division of labour, pp.356-8.
7. D. D. Raphael and A.S. Skinner (eds.), Essays on Philosophical Subjects (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980).
8. R. L. Meek, Smith, Marx and After (London and New York: Chapman & Hall, 1977).
9. Adam Smith, Lectures on Jurisprudence, edited by R.L. Meek, D.D. Raphael and P.G. Stein (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), pp.335, 340, 521, 527.
10. Albert O. Hirschman, 'Rival Interpretations of Market Society: Civilising, Destructive or Feeble?', Journal of Economic Literature, Vol.XX (1982), p.1465.
11. A. Ferguson, Essay on the History of Civil Society, edited by D. Forbes, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966) p.143; Smith on the virtues of the private man in Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, edited by D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp.55-6.
12. A. Ferguson, Essay on the History of Civil Society, edited by D. Forbes, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966) p.143; Smith on the virtues of the private man in Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, edited by D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp.55-6.
13. Ioannidou, op. cit., Ch. 2.
14. Ioannidou, 'The Truth of Adam Smith's Mistake and His Politics', MA dissertation. University of Warwick (1991).
15. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Book I, edited by E. Cannan, (London: Methuen, 1961), p.18.
16. Wealth of Nations, Book II, p.291.
17. Marx says: 'What is it that forms the bond between independent labourers and the cattlebreeder?': Karl Marx, Capital, Vol.I (London: Penguin, 1988), p. 475. The bond between them is the fact that their respective products are commodities to be sold in the market. Marx criticized the naturalism of classic political economy by offering a critique of the commodity production and the particular form of the division of labour in the labour process (pp.604-39).
18. Richard Gunn highlights the importance of this link, which has been very little explored and it will be the subject of separate study: R. Gunn, 'What do we owe to the Scots?', Common Sense, No. 17 (1995).
19. Wealth of Nations, p.56.
20. N. Rosenberg, 'Adam Smith on the Division of Labour: Two Views or One?', Economica, Vol.32 (1965); Simon Clarke, Marx, Marginalism, and Modern Sociology: From Adam Smith to Max Weber (London: Macmillan, 1991).
21. N. Rosenberg, 'Adam Smith on the Division of Labour: Two Views or One?', Economica, Vol.32 (1965); Simon Clarke, Marx, Marginalism, and Modern Sociology: From Adam Smith to Max Weber (London: Macmillan, 1991).
22. Clarke, op. cit, p.153.
23. See Clarke, op. cit., for a historical view on the role of early political economy in the light of the later capitalist developments, positive sociology and the critique of political economy.
24. Robert Fine, Democracy and the Rule of Law (London: Pluto Press, 1985), p.46.
25. On the link between the two schools of thought see Ioannidou (1996), op. cit., Chs. 6 and 7.
26. Philosophical Subjects, pp.117-18 (paraphrase).
27. As Riedel put it in the SDS and in the Vorlesungen zur Realphilosophie 1803/4. 1805/6, work appears as the central moment of the constitution of spirit. In the NLE spirit cannot be identified with 'ethical nature' nor can the latter be identified with the people in which it reflects itself, taking nature back into itself in the form of intellectual intuition. In the SDS and in particular in the Jena writings work becomes the problem of practical philosophy. Work itself is the basic form of spirit and as such is no longer degraded to a subordinate position in practical philosophy as was the case for Kant and the earlier philosophical discussions. Labour, the struggle of the subject with the object and the objectification of the struggle into the product of work, became for Hegel an essential moment for the historical mediation of consciousness and of the discussion of Spirit: M. Riedel, Between Tradition and Revolution:. The Hegelian Transformation of Political Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp.17, 19, 120.
28. Philosophical Subjects, p.121.
29. Ibid., pp.139, 121.
30. '... labor is without an aim, without need, and without a bearing on practical feeling, without subjectivity; neither having done one's duty, in the latter an inner one, the consciousness it has a bearing on possession and acquisition, but with itself its aim and its product cease too'. Hegel, System of Ethical Life and First Philosophy of Spirit (New York: State University of New York Press, 1979), para. 467, p.149.
31. Philosophical Subjects, p.139.
32. Fine, op. cit., p. 53; Waldron, op. cit.; Bruce Haddock, 'Hegel's Critique of the Theory of Social Contract', in D. Boucher and Paul Kelly (eds.), The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls (London: Routledge, 1994); S.B. Smith, Hegel's Critique of Liberalism (Chicago, IL and London: Chicago University Press, 1989).
33. Fine, op. cit., p. 53; Waldron, op. cit.; Bruce Haddock, 'Hegel's Critique of the Theory of Social Contract', in D. Boucher and Paul Kelly (eds.), The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls (London: Routledge, 1994); S.B. Smith, Hegel's Critique of Liberalism (Chicago, IL and London: Chicago University Press, 1989).
34. Fine, op. cit., p. 53; Waldron, op. cit.; Bruce Haddock, 'Hegel's Critique of the Theory of Social Contract', in D. Boucher and Paul Kelly (eds.), The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls (London: Routledge, 1994); S.B. Smith, Hegel's Critique of Liberalism (Chicago, IL and London: Chicago University Press, 1989).
35. Fine, op. cit., p. 53; Waldron, op. cit.; Bruce Haddock, 'Hegel's Critique of the Theory of Social Contract', in D. Boucher and Paul Kelly (eds.), The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls (London: Routledge, 1994); S.B. Smith, Hegel's Critique of Liberalism (Chicago, IL and London: Chicago University Press, 1989).
36. Philosophical Subjects, p.123.
37. Cited in Gerhard Göhler, Kommentar zu Hegels politischen Systemen (Frankfurt and Berlin: Ullstein, 1974).
38. Philosophical Subjects, para. 182.
39. For an extensive examination of Hegel's critique of formalism and empiricism see Ioannidou (1996), Ch.8.
40. Philosophical Subjects, para. 189 [A H,G].
41. Ibid., par. 182 [A G,H].
42. Göhler, op. cit.; Z.A. Pelczynski, 'Introduction' to The State and Civil Society: Studies in Hegel's Political Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); and Jürgen Habermas, Theory and Practice (London: Heinemann, 1974). The discussion is mainly located on the articulation of the distinction between the state and civil society, and on the crucial role of modern political economy.
43. Göhler, op. cit.; Z.A. Pelczynski, 'Introduction' to The State and Civil Society: Studies in Hegel's Political Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); and Jürgen Habermas, Theory and Practice (London: Heinemann, 1974). The discussion is mainly located on the articulation of the distinction between the state and civil society, and on the crucial role of modern political economy.
44. Göhler, op. cit.; Z.A. Pelczynski, 'Introduction' to The State and Civil Society: Studies in Hegel's Political Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); and Jürgen Habermas, Theory and Practice (London: Heinemann, 1974). The discussion is mainly located on the articulation of the distinction between the state and civil society, and on the crucial role of modern political economy.
45. Philosophical Subjects, para. 135.
46. Compare with Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, Ch.II, pp.52-3.
47. The abstract and logical actualization of spirit is the conceptualization of social relations as logical relations. For Habermas (op. cit.) this reification takes place also in the sphere of communication which is distinct from the sphere of production, and thus the logical reified relations are valid and operative only behind the 'backs of the subjects'. This examination of reified logical relations corresponds to the relations taking place in the sphere of production, which is separated from the sphere of communication. Thus Habermas distinguishes between two forms of reification; first, on the level of the struggle for recognition in the context of the relation between individuals, where possession is gained by means of labour. Recognition as mutual recognition is mediated by the individual's possessions. Second, reification in the labour process.
48. C.B. Macpherson, Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), pp.195-203.
49. Philosophical Subjects, paras. 243, 244.
50. That has been the core of the critique of Hegel's political philosophy by Adorno in Negative Dialectics, that is, that he had overemphasized the importance of modern institutions for the realization of modern freedoms: Ioannidou, op. cit. (1991).
51. That has been the core of the critique of Hegel's political philosophy by Adorno in Negative Dialectics, that is, that he had overemphasized the importance of modern institutions for the realization of modern freedoms: Ioannidou, op. cit. (1991).