| This question <10|3> overall <10|12> Jimi: <330-50|41>. |
| Question 20: If Marx wanted to start his book with first principles, why did he pick the analysis of the commodity and not the analysis of the labor process or the analysis of value? |
| [11] Jimi: Comments on Eagle's submission--“Primary Object” I disagree with Eagle's assertion in [10] that Marx believes a commodity is “a thing which through its qualities satisfies human needs of whatever kind.” Marx categorizes those things that enhance human life as material wealth. He separates the notion of “wealth” from that of the “commodity.” According to our first study guide, a commodity is “something which is produced for sale or exchange.” Marx's argument is that in a capitalistic society wealth comes in the commodity form, however in other types of society that may or may not be true. |
| Eagle argues that before men can labor they must have commodities with which to work. Well, if a commodity is “something produced for sale or exchange” then it is Eagle who has put “the cart before the horse”. According to Marx, the rock used to pound the wheat would not be a commodity, unless someone was willing to exchange a commodtiy for that rock. |
| Marx chose the analysis of the commodity as his first principle because the commodity is the simplest thing that contains both use value and exchange value, two concepts which are essential to his argument. Labor itself is such a broad subject that in order to understand it, we must first examine its components. The commodity, being a component of labor that guides labor itself, would logically be an important beginning to an analysis of the labor process. |
| Hans: Although [11] referred to a trial question, it was a comment on somebody else and I count it as your first assignment. |
| You did not merely assert that Eagle said something wrong, but you also identified his source of error: he was confusing the definition of wealth with that of a commodity. |
| The second paragraph in [11] is I think the weakest. In my view, Eagle did some innovative and correct thinking when he said that the labor process cannot be primary because labor needs instruments which are themselves produced. This is very right. Too often we forget to what extent we are standing on the shoulders of the past. You did not recognize that. |
|
|
|||||