Not too long ago, a wave of books written by left-wing and liberal commentators appeared celebrating a future in which work would be a thing of the past. The increased productivity of technology would free humans from drudgery and allow them to focus on cultural pursuits and spend more time making friends or finding love, these polemics alleged. Amid the near-daily stream of stories warning about the disastrous social effects that artificial intelligence may have, not just on the labor market but on people’s literacy and numeracy, this earlier mood seems at best misguided.

In his recently published book, Flourishing Together: Karl Marx’s Vision of the Good Society, Jan Kandiyali, a professor of philosophy at Durham University in England, argues that his subject’s views about work and the good life have been deeply misunderstood. Yes, Marx was a profound critic of capitalism. He saw the system as exploitative and harmful to human relations of friendship and love. But he also thought that contributing productively to society was a vital component of the good life.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Kandiyali tells Jacobin why socialists mustn’t abandon this vision. The path to building a better society runs through, rather than past, recognizing the social value of work.