Abstract

In Karl Marx's Capital we can read a long note dealing with a passage from Plato's Republic, more specifically from Book II in the part where Socrates is founding the city in the speech (369c-370d). Marx uses the passage to exemplify the ancients' point of view regarding the social division of labor. Marx's aim is to establish a critique of the capitalist mode of production and the division of labor among moderns as it presents itself in the manufacturing system of bourgeois society. According to Marx, there is an appropriation of capital over social labor time, transforming full-time workers into partial and unilateral workers from the decomposition of a craft activity into its various fragmented operations. In this way, the worker loses his autonomy and his ability to know the totality of the craft to become a mere cog in a total mechanism that belongs to him. Our aim is to analyze the passage in which Marx speaks of the division of labor in Plato's Republic and the opportune time to do the work so as not to lose it [ἔργου καιρὸν διόλλυται]. For Plato, the division of labor is necessary for the social development of human beings and the role of each person within the city. From this perspective, we intend to investigate the passage within Plato's work itself and relate it to Marx's interpretation. Finally, we will briefly explain the importance of omnilateral education in the field of professional and technological education and how Plato and Marx are essential thinkers for the improvement of future research on the subject.