Page:Karl Kautsky - Ethics and The Materialist Conception of History - tr. J. B. Askew (1906).pdf/97

 Thus in contrast to the animal organism the development of the artificial organs of man is unlimited, at least, as measured by human ideas. They find their limit only in the mass of the moving forces which Sun and Earth place at the disposal of man.

The separation of the artificial organs of man from his personality has, however, still other effects. If the whole organs of the animal organism are bound up with it, that means that every individual has the same organs at his disposal. The sole exception is formed by the organs of reproduction. Only in this region is a division of labour to be found among the higher organisms. Every other division of labour in the animal organism rests on the simple fact that certain individuals take over certain functions for a certain period—for example, the sentry duty, as leaders, etc.—without requiring for the purpose organs which are different from those of other individuals.

The discovery of the tool, on the other hand, made it possible that in a society certain individuals should exclusively use certain tools, or, so much oftener in proportion as they understand their uses better than any one else. Thus we come to a form of division of labour in human society which is of quite another kind from the modest beginnings of such in the animal societies. In the latter there remains, with all the division of labour, a being by itself, which possesses all the organs which it requires for its support. In human society this is less the case the further the division of labour advances in it. The more developed is this latter, so much the greater the number of the organs which society has at its disposal for the gaining of their sustenance and the maintenance of their method of life, but so much the greater, also, the number of the organs which are required, and so much the more dependent the organs over which the individual has command. So much the greater the power of society over nature, but so much the more helpless the individual outside of society, so much the more dependent upon it. The animal society which arose as a natural growth can never raise its members above