Question:

How should we understand the dual character of labor?

Answer:

1　The dual character of labor means concrete labor and abstract labor. Concrete labor produces use values; abstract labor produces value.

2　Useful labor and concrete labor: labor that produces the use-value aspect of a commodity is called useful labor for short. When comparing different kinds of useful labor, we also call it concrete labor.

“A coat is a use value that satisfies a particular need. Producing a coat requires a particular kind of productive activity. This activity is determined by its purpose, mode of operation, object, means, and result. Labor whose usefulness is expressed by the use value of its product, or by the fact that its product is a use value, we call useful labor for short. From this standpoint, labor is always considered in connection with its useful effect. (55)”

“The labor of tailoring a coat is a kind of concrete labor different from the labor of weaving linen. (65)”

3　Abstract labor: all the different forms of labor involve the expenditure of human labor power, a consumption or outlay of human energy in production. The value of commodities is formed by this abstract labor.

4　Abstract labor does not form value at all times. It forms value only under the conditions of commodity production.

“With the disappearance of the useful character of the products of labor, the useful character of the various kinds of labor embodied in them also disappears, and with it the different concrete forms of those kinds of labor. They no longer differ from one another, but are all reduced to the same human labor, abstract human labor. (51)”

“All labor is, on the one hand, the expenditure of human labor power in the physiological sense; in this capacity as identical or abstract human labor, it forms the value of commodities. All labor is, on the other hand, the expenditure of human labor power in a particular form directed toward a definite purpose; in this capacity as concrete, useful labor, it produces use values. (60)”

5　The dual character of labor was Marx's original contribution; classical economists had never raised it. Marx called it “the pivot on which an understanding of political economy turns. (55)”

6　An aside here: concrete labor and abstract labor are both eternal categories common to all social formations. Concrete labor is naturally easy to understand; the disputed point is abstract labor. Wei Xinghua said: “In the socialist society Marx envisaged, where commodity production has been abolished, labor time as the measure of labor and consumption can only be abstract labor. In other words, in such a society without a commodity economy, abstract labor can still exist and, indeed, must exist.” For a more detailed discussion of this, see pages 12–15 of Yu Bin's The True Meaning of Capital: How to Understand Capitalism.