Praxis and labor in Hegel

Abstract

'Praxis' and 'labor' are terms that stand for something fundamental in human existence. They may be seen as representing two separate things, as they were by the ancient Greeks, or they may be seen as representing the same thing, as they are by most moderns, if not by all. For the Greeks praxis meant the political activity of free men, who were free precisely because they did not have to labor. The Greek term for labor was ponos, which had the connotation of hard labor or toil and even distress, suffering or sickness.1 This was something reserved mainly for slaves whose very lack of freedom was a function of their being caught up with having to provide for the necessities of life, and whose labor made it possible for others to be free for taking part in praxis.2 This accounts for why Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle had so little to say about 'labor', since they were concerned much more with political activity where men were more truly men, and less animal. Labor belonged more in the privacy of the household where the necessities of life were taken care of, whether in giving birth to new life or in sustaining already existing life. Women were not slaves for the Greeks. They constituted a half of the free population, as Aristotle said,3 and were to be ruled 'politically' by men, not slavishly.4 Yet, inasmuch as their life was 'laborious'5 and devoted to life functions, they belonged in the same category as slaves when it came to the distinction between public and private life. They were hidden away in the household, which was driven by the wants and needs of life. Therefore they shared the laborious life with the slaves,6 whereas only men enjoyed the fulness of freedom found only in political activity or praxis. This was the only life equal to the full dignity of men, along with the life of philosophy, and the only one which could be opposed to philosophy, since it began only once the necessities of life were taken care of.7