General intellect, according to

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

in the ''

Grundrisse The ''Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie'' (, ), often simply the ''Grundrisse'' (, ), is an unfinished manuscript by the German philosopher Karl Marx. The series of seven notebooks was rough-drafted by Marx, chiefly for purposes ...

'', is capable of becoming a structural force of production. The concept designates a combination of

technological Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as ute ...

expertise An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field or area of study. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized a ...

and

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

intellect Intellect is a faculty of the human mind that enables reasoning, abstraction, conceptualization, and judgment. It enables the discernment of truth and falsehood, as well as higher-order thinking beyond immediate perception. Intellect is dis ...

, or general

social knowledge Common knowledge is knowledge that is publicly known by everyone or nearly everyone, usually with reference to the community in which the knowledge is referenced. Common knowledge can be about a broad range of subjects, such as science, litera ...

(increasing importance of

machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

ry in

social organization In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, struc ...

). The "general intellect" passage in the ''Fragment on machines'', says that, while the development of machinery led to the oppression of workers under

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

, it also offers a prospect for future liberation.

Overview

According to Marx, the development of the general intellect manifests in a

capitalist society Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by a n ...

, in the control of the social life process.

Thus, for Dyer-Witheford, the vision laid out in the ''Fragment'' “is eminently recognizable as a portrait of what is now commonly termed an ‘information society’ or ‘knowledge economy’” (1999, 221). ��In Virno’s view the ''Fragment'' argues that “abstract knowledge (primarily but not only scientific knowledge) is in the process of becoming nothing less than the main force of production and will soon relegate the repetitious and segmented assembly of the production-line to a residual position” (2007, 3).

In other words, with the idea of the general intellect, Marx designates a radical change of the subsumption of labour to

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

and indicates a third stage of the

division of labour The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise ( specialisation). Individuals, organisations, and nations are endowed with or acquire specialised capabilities, a ...

Paolo Virno Paolo Virno (; ; born 14 May 1952) is an Italian philosopher, semiologist and a figurehead for the Italian Marxist movement. Implicated in belonging to illegal social movements during the 1960s and 1970s, Virno was arrested and jailed in 1979, ...

maintained that "general intellect" is not exclusive to communism, and applies generally to

late capitalism The concept of late capitalism (in German: ''Spätkapitalismus''), also known as late-stage capitalism, was first used by the German social scientist Werner Sombart (1863–1941) in 1928, to describe the new capitalist order emerging at that tim ...

Etymology

According to Matteo Pasquinelli, Marx took the expression 'general intellect' from William Thompson's book ''An Inquiry Into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth'' (1824), an early text written on mental labour. According to Pasquinelli, the concept disappears in the transition between the ''Grundrisse'' and ''Capital'' as it is replaced by the notion of collective worker or ''Gesamtarbeiter''.

References

External links

"General Intellect"
in ''Lessico Postfordista'', Milano: Feltrinelli, 2001. * Matteo Pasquinelli
"Italian Operaismo and the Information Machine"
''Theory, Culture & Society'', first published on February 2, 2014. * Matteo Pasquinelli,
On the Origins of Marx's General Intellect"
''Radical Philosophy,'' 2.06, winter 2019. * Tony Smith
The "General Intellect" in the ''Grundrisse'' and beyond
Marxist theory {{poli-philo-stub

Overview

Etymology

See also

References

External links