ABSTRACT
At the heart of Marxist political economy is the premise that human beings consciously produce their means of subsistence through socially or ganized labor. In doing this, humans are distin guished from other animals: “A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguished the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagi nation before he erects it in reality” (Marx, 1967, p. 178). It is characteristic of humans that they collectively adapt nature to their needs, while other animals must adapt themselves to the demands of nature.
