Worker bees and slave labor

Hilde Hein

pp. 399-416

in: Nimrod Bar Am, Stefano Gattei (eds), Encouraging openness, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

Work connotes activity, effecting or bringing something about. The worker does something physically and/or mentally, and whatever is "worked" has been acted upon. Work is a denial of passivity, and thus a manifestation of force or power. Indeed, the association of work with force sometimes invites a further conjunction between work and violence. John Locke, for example, identifies labor with 'subduing" the earth, and thereby rationalizes private property: "The Law Man was under, was rather for appropriating. God Commanded, and his [man's] Wants forced him to labor. And hence subduing or cultivating the Earth, and having Dominion, we see, are joined together. The one gave Title to the other. So that God, by commanding to subdue, gave Authority so far to appropriate. And the Condition of Human Life, which requires Labor and Materials to work on, necessarily introduces private possessions."

Cited authors

Locke John