Monday, July 27, 2015

Consciousness, Psychokinesis, Labor

In the Phenomenology, Hegel attributes Labor, i. e. the process of imposing form on an outer object, to Consciousness.  In the Philosophy of Right, this process constitutes taking possession of an object, but in this case the Mind uses an "instrument", as he characterizes it in #48--"the body".  So, presumably, in his system, Consciousness has the power of psychokinesis, and contingently resorts to physical means to take possession of the products of Labor.  Analogously, therefore, it is the employer of physical means of Labor who is the owner of what is thereby produced, according to Hegelianism.  So, if the the Capitalist's claiming of possession of the fruits of the Labor of others is unjust, the required correction is undoing of the original Mind-Body split, but necessarily an inversion of the subordination of the latter to the former.

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