| This question <11|10> overall <2|4> Miranda: <3|3>. |
| 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? |
| [3] Miranda: Commodity One of Marx's underlying assumptions is that the commodity is the elementary form of wealth. Therefore, it is natural that he begin his work with the smallest element of an economic system in order to describe that system. |
| The labor process is not, for Marx, a logical place to begin. The labor process only exists because of the commodity. It exists to produce and refine commodities to add to their use value. Before one can explain the labor process, one must explain why that process exists. According to Marx, economic systems of capitalism begin and end with the commodity. |
| Value is not a logical place for Marx to start either. Value is arrived at from the physical properties of the commodity. The commodity is still the “cell” of Marx's theory. |
| At the base of the labor process and value is the commodity. |
| Hans: Your first paragraph can be paraphrased as: Marx started with the commodity because he believed this was the right starting point. But I was not really asking about the motivation of the person Karl Marx. I assumed that his reasons would have some general validity. |
| In the second paragraph I think you are making the error of identifying “commodity” with “product”. This is a serious error in this class. |
| And how you come to the conclusion that “value is arrived at from the physical properties of the commodity” is a mystery to me. |
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