Fra arbeidsbegrepets historie: Aristoteles til Marx

This working paper dips into the history of the ideas of work, from the Antiquity through Christianity, the middle ages and the reformation to Marx. The standard pictures of the antique philosophy as ‘work despising’, and as poles apart from Christian thinking, is modified. On the other hand, the contrast between the traditional and modern concepts of work is emphasised: Modern philosophical thinking has removed all the negative connotations which have been attributed to the concept of work through the history, and has even brought an emancipatory element into the concept