Evolution and Relations of Production

To Evolve is to increase in functional complexity, or, equivalently, to increase in versatility.  The subject of the process can be a unified entity, e. g. not only a thumb, or a person, but a species as well.  So, the Evolution of a Species involves not only what it can do, but also how it is organized, or, in Marxist terms, not only the Means of Production, but also the Relations of Production.  Now, Versatility combines Unity and Multiplicity.  Thus, e. g. the human thumb is more versatile than that of an ape by virtue of being able to do more without loss of unity.  Similarly, an increase in the versatility of the Relations of Production consists in either an increase in diversity or better organization.  Accordingly, what is lacking in the concept of Division of Labor shared by Smith and Marx is any organic unity, the result of which is potential fragmentation or exploitation.  That deficiency is potentially addressed by the collectivization of property, but Marx-Engels fail to extend that unity to a collectivization of functioning, even as they exemplify it as collaborators.  In contrast, Plato, in the Republic, considers an organic concept of Relations of Production, but not as potentially variable, and, hence, not as capable of Evolving, i. e. of increasing in versatility.