Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 09:38:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: Re: PHILOSOPHY & THE DIVISION OF LABOR


At 08:17 AM 6/21/97 -0500, kellner-AT-ccwf.cc.utexas.edu wrote:
>I don't recall Ralph's original posting as to what aspects of the division
>of labor he was interested in

Here is my original query of 12 May:

>I need to know what the old Frankfurters (i.e. not Habermas and the
>contemporary ones) wrote, if anything, about philosophy (or intellectual
>life in general) in its relationship to the division of labor, and whether
>they foresaw as desirable the abolition of intellectuals as a separate stratum
>within society.  Did any of them see their own role in society as being
>limited by their own place (class position) in the division of labor?
>Without having sufficient scholarly competence in this school of thought, I
>always assumed they all took part to some degree in characteristic European
>intellectual snobbishness.  Then yesterday I opened Adorno's MINIMA MORALIA
>and found a reference to the division of labor on the first page.  This
>reminded me I need to know more, and from who better than serious Frankfurt
>School scholars?

Doug Kellner continues:

>but Alfred Sohn-Rethel, a friend of Adorno,
>had a book INTELLECTUAL AND MANUAL subtitled A CRITIQUE OF EPISTEMOLOGY. I
>have a paper edition from Humanities Press, 1978, but don't know if its
>still in print.

Yes, I have this, found in a used book store.  This would be the number one
book to read, and then George Thomson's THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS.  I can't
recall offhand what else I have in my library right now, except for a recent
book by Richard T. Peterson.  It is amazing how few people write about
philosophy in terms of the division of labor, though there is a plethora of
(crummy) books on the implications of race and gender for philosophy.

Now the one figure within Marxism of whom I have consummate knowledge is
C.L.R. James, whose views on the division of labor and the future of
intellectuals run to an extreme I have not seen anywhere else.  I suspect
James's views were completely original, but lacking a thorough academic
education in these matters, I need to do the proper research before putting
such claims into print.  I have several books by Adorno relevant to several
projects on my reading list, but I don't have a whole lifetime left to
appropriate the entire Frankfurt School (a fortiori "Western Marxism"), so I
must take a short cut by consulting the experts.  Thanks for your help!