Society, through the division of labour, produces more than the sum of its parts.
Evidence
On several occasions, Marx stresses the analogy between the problems of the division of labour and those of military tactics. For example: ‘Just as the offensive power of a squadron of cavalry, or the defensive power of a regiment of infantry, is essentially different from the sum of the offensive or defensive powers of the individual cavalry or infantry soldiers taken separately, so the sum total of the mechanical forces exerted by isolated workmen differs from the social force that is developed, when many hands take part simultaneously in one and the same undivided operation’ (Marx, Capital, vol. 1, 308). — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 246 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
But even if to speak of the equality of mankind in the presence of the qualitative singularity of individuals is no more than a misuse of words, the ideal of the unity of mankind is not at all incompatible with this supposition. For one can conceive of the diversity of individuals, even if it implies neither economic production nor more generally a direct cooperation of everyone, as a kind of division of labor. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 691 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: The social exceeds the sum of its individual members; Combined labor generates a social force exceeding the sum of individual efforts — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 246; Individual diversity can be conceived as a division of labor among unique beings — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 691 (+8 more)
Related
- The social exceeds the sum of its individual members (similarity 0.93)
- Social aggregates exceed their components because division of labour creates unownable collective production (similarity 0.92)
- Collective critique and division of labor raise a group’s average to its best members. (similarity 0.90)
- Division of labor makes modern societies possible, not merely more productive. (similarity 0.88)
- Combined labor generates a social force exceeding the sum of individual efforts (similarity 0.86)
- Fewer, more general marriage forms allow more individual differentiation (similarity 0.83)
- Individual diversity can be conceived as a division of labor among unique beings (similarity 0.82)
- Society exceeds its individual parts through collective labor and division of functions (similarity 0.81)
- Factory division of labor reduces workers to fragments of persons (similarity 0.79)
- Division-of-labor individualism requires a powerful state that becomes the individual’s master (similarity 0.79)
- Marx’s productivity concept exceeds mere material production. (similarity 0.78)
- Qualitative individualism’s division of labor produces a powerful anti-liberal state (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Combined labor generates a social force exceeding the sum of individual efforts
#corroborates(0.95) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 246 - Individual diversity can be conceived as a division of labor among unique beings
#expands(0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 691 - Capitalism’s division of labor yields ruling ideas controlled by the dominant class
#qualifies(0.75) - A modern state is an institutionalized division of political labor
#exemplifies(0.72)