"The centrality of work thesis, espoused over the past decade by scholars in social philosophy, psychology, and political and social theory, has been mooted recently by certain economists as one way to transcend the instrumental conception of work that predominates in economics. The present article aims to show in what respects Commons’ writings, and more particularly those published prior to the “theoretical turn” that ushered in the second part of his career, shed light on the nature and meaning of work and reveal Commons as a major advocate of the notion of the centrality of work in human life."