CMNS 223W Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Relation
18 Oct 2015
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Document Summary
Markets, exchange value, abstraction and fetishism de ne commodities. The utility of an object, what it does, how it"s useful: ex. without roads, a car has no use-value. Intrinsic to physical or natural properties of the object; contingent upon historical factors: ex. cigarette - use value is intrinsic to the quality of the tobacco. Exists independently of the amount of labour expended in production. Results in an equivalence or equality between all commodities. Exchange is an act characterized by a total abstraction and independence from use: ex. the market determines the exchange value of tobacco/coal/wheat, etc. (quantities) value, ie. in the act of exchange, use-values (qualities) are eclipsed by exchange-value. Value determined by amount of generalized social labour contained in commodity. Advertising/marketing adds to the exchange value of goods. A thing can have use-value without having exchange value but a thing cannot have: value does not = price.
