In Forces of Production, David Noble examines the transformation of the machine-tool industry as the industry moved from reliance on skilled artisans to automation. Noble writes from a Marxist perspective, and his central argument is that management, in its decisions to automate, conspired against labor: the power that the skilled machinists wielded in the industry was intolerable to management. Noble fails to substantiate this claim, although his argument is impressive when he applies the Marxist concept of "de-skilling"—the use of technology to replace skilled labor—to the automation of the machine-tool industry. In automating, the industry moved to computer-based, digitalized "numerical control" (N/C) technology, rather than to artisan generated "record-playback" (R/P) technology.

Although both systems reduced reliance on skilled labor, Noble clearly prefers R/P, with its inherent acknowledgment of workers' skills: unlike N/C, its programs were produced not by engineers at their computers, but by skilled machinists, who recorded their own movements to "teach" machines to duplicate those movements. However, Noble's only evidence of conspiracy is that, although the two approaches were roughly equal in technical merit, management chose N/C. From this he concludes that automation is undertaken not because efficiency demands it or scientific advances allow it. But because it is a tool in the ceaseless war of capitalists against labor.

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Which of the following best characterizes Forces of Production as it is described in the passage?


A comparison of two interpretations of how a particular industry evolved

An examination of the origin of a particular concept in industrial economics

A study that points out the weakness of a particular interpretation of an industrial phenomenon

A history of a particular industry from an ideological point of view

An attempt to relate an industrial phenomenon in one industry to a similar phenomenon in another industry

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正确答案应该是 D：A history of a particular industry from an ideological point of view。

因为从这篇文章中可以看出，David Noble的文章《生产力的力量》是从马克思主义的角度分析机械工具行业由手艺人依赖转向自动化的转变，他指出在决定自动化时，管理层对劳动力进行阴谋，而这些技能机械师所掌握的力量在行业中无法容忍，虽然Noble的论点令人印象深刻，但是他没有证明这一点，马克思主义的“去技能化”概念将科技用于取代技能劳动，而将数字控制NC技术运用于机械工具行业，而不是记录-回放RP技术。Noble提出的只有一个阴谋证据，就是尽管两种方法在技术水平上几乎相等，但管理层还是选择了NC。因此，这本书对特定行业的历史进行了异议的观点，是从一种意识形态的角度来分析的，因此最正确的答案是 D：A history of a particular industry from an ideological point of view。

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