Intellectual Labor and Value

The earliest example of a Political Philosophy, Plato's, described by him as an "invention", includes a Division of Labor, i. e. the three main necessary strata of a polis. Hence, the earliest Economic Theory is an invention. Thus, as is the case with any invention, a certain quantum of physiological labor is embodied in every copy of the Republic. However, given the profound influence that that work has had, and continues to have, on subsequent civilization, it seems difficult to reduce the amount of intellectual labor embodied in it to the same mere process of writing that produces any other book of the same length. So, granted the thesis that labor is embodied in any product, its quantity, and, hence, its value, may be impossible to assess at any moment in its history. Accordingly, the Exchange Value at any time of a copy of the Republic hardly reflects its Labor Value.