In both theory and popular usage, manual work is distinguished from any other kind of work by its direct relation top physical nature.
What kind the word “direct” excludes here is the human intermediary; the tools and the machines are by no means excluded.
For instance, to till the land with a tractor driven plow is manual work; but the gentlemen farmer who merely gives orders to his farm hands is not a manual worker even though he may a worker in some sense.
The other characteristics features of manual work, which may be less familiar but are no less self-sufficient, are the following:
- Manual work is a transitive activity. While this term also means transient, fluid, nonlasting, “transitive” here designates the properties of passing from an agent into a receiver.
Also in some metaphysical contexts a transitive action is defined simply as the production of an effect, and thus an action whose effect remains within the agent is still considered transitive.
Here, transitive activity is understood in a restricted sense to designate only those actions whose effect is external to the agent.
Hammering, shaping, melting, cutting are transitive actions in this restricted and strongest sense. - Manual work is an activity by way change. It belongs to the physical type in sharp opposition to the psychological operations which do, or at least may, exist by way of rest.
To work is to bring about a change in an external matter.
When that change has come to an end the worker’s activity belongs to the past. Like many metaphysical simplicities, this has far-reaching implications.
To make a chair is to bring about a change in the wood, the nails, the straw and the glue of which the chair is made.
Manual Work
