A history of the work concept. From physics to economics (Q382510)

The first part of this book is about the background of the ideas of work and energy in physics and mechanics. This part of the story begins in Antiquity and culminates in the rational mechanics of Lagrange. The second part of the book starts with two chapters about the work of Lazare Carnot. Carnot wrote on machines but on a very high level of abstraction. Yet this work was crucial and led Coriolis and others to explicitly apply the concept of work to machines. Because at the time the machine had become a major social artifact the concept of work was soon incorporated in economics. The author likes a broad perspective. The first chapter contains introductions to dialectical materialism, the genetic epistemology of Piaget and theories of history. The last chapter concludes with Karl Marx's analysis of machinery.