Work in Contemporary Capitalism

Abstract

It might be as well to begin with a historical sketch, to situate the topic of work in a larger context than that of immediate preoccupations. In the ancient world (including that of Greece and Rome, which has had most influence on modernity), work was undertaken largely by slaves, and was therefore accorded little moral value. Ancient societies were not economically or technologically dynamic, for the most part, so the idea that work might be an essential means of social improvement or human transformation was scarcely considered. Questions raised by the great ancient philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, on the nature of the good life and the good society for the most part paid little attention to labour as such. The cultivation of the mind and body, the activities of political life and (in some societies, such as Sparta and imperial Rome) the capabilities necessary for war were far more important as sources of value. Physical labour was what cultivated men (women did not come into the equation) avoided wherever possible as a mark of their superior social status.