User:Annabelbonar/Commodity form theory

Use Value

 * the utility of an object
 * intrinsic to the physical properties of the object (303) but contingent upon historical factors
 * exists independently of the amount of labor expended in the production of a commodity (303)
 * is realized only in consumption (which may also be part of production: e.g.. steel in cars) (303)

Exchange Value

 * specific only to commodities
 * is not determined by the natural or intrinsic qualities of the commodity but rather by its relations with other commodities (304)
 * results in an equivalence or equality between all commodities (304, 311)
 * exchange is an act characterized by a total abstraction and independence from use-value (305)
 * i.e. in the act of exchange, use-values (qualities) are eclipsed by exchange-value (quantities)


 * value is determined by the amount of generalized social labor contained in commodities (but only that which is socially necessary at a given time) (305-307, 310)
 * a thing can have use-value without having exchange value (without being exchanged) but a thing cannot have exchange value unless it is a use-value (307)
 * if a thing is useless the labor expended on it is useless and has no value (308)

·       there must be a social division of labor in order to produce commodities, (308) because:

·       use-values cannot be exchanged as commodities unless the labor embodied in them is qualitatively different in each of them(309)

·       the value of a commodity “has a purely social reality” because it embodies human/social labor and can only be expressed in the social relation of commodity to commodity(313)

·       value is material (it is embedded in useful objects) and it is discursive in that it expresses social relations i.e. there is a “language of commodities” (317)

·       i.e. “value converts every product into a social hieroglyphic” (322)

Commodity fetishism
Because commodities embody social labor they express social relations in their exchange (i.e. the exchange of values which consist of labor)


 * because social relations (of production) appear in an objective form in commodities. (320)
 * because social relations (of production) between people exists in the relations among commodities of different kind and relative value (320)

·       in the act of exchange, a social relation between individual producers assumes the form of a relation between the objects of their production


 * A thing that has the power to express social relations seems to come to life, possess magical powers and thus becomes a fetish object (321)
 * this fetish quality arises from the “social character of the labor that produces them” (321)


 * The social action of producers takes the form of the social action of objects “which rule the producers instead of being ruled by them” (323).
 * The objectification of social relations is called reification (“the economy” is an example)
 * This leads to alienation

Thus, under capitalism, there are:

Social relations among things and material relations among people.