Morality and Religion have been providing the ethical basis of human society for ages. But in the modern capitalist societies, labour, indubitably seems to be the inevitable driving force of human civilization. It is the only means through which produces the conditions of his existence argues Marx. Even the ancient Greek and Hellenic philosophers would agree with the argument. Thus labour has become a part of human culture which, in turn, has moved from an agricultural to an industrial way of life. The modern industrial-capitalist system opens up a new chapter in the historical analysis of the phenomenon of labour. It could be analyzed as it appears under a reified society, to use Lukacs’ term. Under a reified society, labour produces commodities and transforms itself into a commodity too. In societies based on modern capitalism, every social relationship including emotions seems to acquire a commodified nature. The capitalist society is reified to a degree that even the violation of norms seems permissible if it satisfies the principle of profit under exchange relations. That renders a very special case for study, a rather circular relation between labor and commodity, the two being inseparably intertwined with particular cultural norms.
Commodification, reification, rationality, labour, emotions
