This question <403|308> overall <99|101> Darci: <99|217>.  
  Question 71: Doesn't Marx contradict himself when he says the Simple form of value is difficult to analyze?   
  [100] Darci: Marx does not contradict himself when he says the simple form of value is difficult to analyze because if one looks at the value of commodities as equivalent then quantities must become involved. As quantities become involved in the analyses then it become more and more difficult to analyze. For example, if one looks at all of the equivalent values, i.e. X quantity A = Y quantity B or Z quantity C or W quantity D, then does it make Y quantity B equivalent to Z quantity C or W quantity D? According to Marx this analyses does not work mathematically and X quantity A is not the reciprocal of Y quantity B because one value must take an active role in the equation and one a passive role (A being analyzed using B as the measure). Differences must become somehow equal with a common denominator and at this point of the analyses there is no common denominator.   
  Hans: This is therefore a kind of mathematics which we are not used to: the equivalence between commodities is not symmetric and also not “transitive” as the mathematicians say.   
 
 
 
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