I'm going to supply some of that selective Cartesian doubt here. How does this Marx entymologist guy know that spiders and bees do not have a structure in their imagination before they erect it in reality?
--- On Thu, 4/16/09, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> "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 distinguishes the worst
> architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect
> raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in
> reality. At the end of every labour-process, we get a result
> that already existed in the imagination of the labourer at
> its commencement. He not only effects a change of form in
> the material on which he works, but he also realises a
> purpose of his own that gives the law to his modus operandi,
> and to which he must subordinate his will. And this
> subordination is no mere momentary act. Besides the exertion
> of the bodily organs, the process demands that, during the
> whole operation, the workman’s will be steadily in
> consonance with his purpose. This means close attention. The
> less he is attracted by the nature of the work, and the mode
> in which it is carried on, and the less, therefore, he
> enjoys it as something which gives play to his bodily and
> mental powers, the more close his attention is forced to
> be."
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