Key Arguments

• Work is distinguished from labor by fabricating a sheer variety of things whose sum total forms the human artifice.
• These things possess durability relevant for property (Locke), value for exchange (Adam Smith), and testify to productivity (Marx).
• Proper use does not consume these objects; they confer stability and solidity necessary for a human world.

Source Quotes

The work of our hands, as distinguished from the labor of our bodies— who makes and literally “works upon” as distinguished from the which labors and “mixes with”—fabricates the sheer unending variety of things whose sum total constitutes the human artifice. They are mostly, but not exclusively, objects for use and they possess the durability Locke needed for the establishment of property, the “value” Adam Smith needed for the exchange market, and they bear testimony to productivity, which Marx believed to be the test of human nature.

The work of our hands, as distinguished from the labor of our bodies— who makes and literally “works upon” as distinguished from the which labors and “mixes with”—fabricates the sheer unending variety of things whose sum total constitutes the human artifice. They are mostly, but not exclusively, objects for use and they possess the durability Locke needed for the establishment of property, the “value” Adam Smith needed for the exchange market, and they bear testimony to productivity, which Marx believed to be the test of human nature. Their proper use does not cause them to disappear and they give the human artifice the stability and solidity without which it could not be relied upon to house the unstable and mortal creature which is man.

They are mostly, but not exclusively, objects for use and they possess the durability Locke needed for the establishment of property, the “value” Adam Smith needed for the exchange market, and they bear testimony to productivity, which Marx believed to be the test of human nature. Their proper use does not cause them to disappear and they give the human artifice the stability and solidity without which it could not be relied upon to house the unstable and mortal creature which is man. The durability of the human artifice is not absolute; the use we make of it, even though we do not consume it, uses it up.

Key Concepts

• The work of our hands, as distinguished from the labor of our bodies—
• fabricates the sheer unending variety of things whose sum total constitutes the human artifice.
• They are mostly, but not exclusively, objects for use and they possess the durability Locke needed for the establishment of property, the “value” Adam Smith needed for the exchange market, and they bear testimony to productivity, which Marx believed to be the test of human nature.
• Their proper use does not cause them to disappear and they give the human artifice the stability and solidity without which it could not be relied upon to house the unstable and mortal creature which is man.

Context

CHAPTER IV (lines 2681–2737): Opening distinction between work and labor; characterization of work’s products and their role in constituting the human world.