Das Kapital Technology and Modernization Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph) or (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

The use and construction of instruments of labour, although present in germ among certain species of animals, is characteristic of the specifically human labour process, and Franklin therefore defines man as a 'tool-making animal'. (7.1.5)

Technology plays a crucial role in human existence. Marx isn't saying here that he defines the human being as the tool-making animal necessarily, but he definitely thinks enough of the idea to quote Benjamin Franklin saying it.

Quote #5

Relics of bygone instruments of labour possess the same importance for the investigation of extinct economic formations of society as do fossil bones for the determination of extinct species of animals. It is not what is made but how, and by what instruments of labour, that distinguishes different economic epochs. Instruments of labour not only supply a standard of the degree of development which human labour has attained, but they also indicate the social relations within which men work. (7.1.5)

Advances in technology improving the instruments of labor give insight into the economic structures of societies. For example, the invention of complex machines during the Industrial Revolution led to the factory era.

Quote #6

Moments are the elements of profit. (10.2.15)

Saving time increases efficiency and therefore means more profit. As capitalism has become part of modern life, so part of modern life means a drive for efficiency, as represented in this clip from a famous Twilight Zone episode where a boss badgers an employee about pushing harder at work all the time.