General intellect

origin and overcoming of a Karl Marx’s misconception

Abstract

In the excerpt from the Grundrisse known as Fragment on machines, Marx discusses the role of collective knowledge, which he terms general intellect, within the production processes of large-scale industry, where industrial automation tends to expel from the working process the only agent who can create value: the worker. According to Marx’s supposition, this contradiction could undermine the foundations of the capitalist mode of production and bring the possibility of its overcoming. Marx's general intellect is the starting point of the article, which aims: (i) to analyze the controversial hypothesis about the general intellect that Marx registers in the Grundrisse; (ii) to present the origin of the expression general intellect, which dates from the beginning of the 19th century, decades before its registration in this manuscript; and (iii) to reveal how Marx overcomes that interpretation a few years later, when he presents his conclusions about the role of science and technology in capitalist production processes. The article establishes an interlocution with some thoughts of Matteo Pasquinelli and Michael Heinrich, among other authors, confronting them with Marx’s writings.