| This question <113|134> overall <120|122> Karl: <43|176-1>. |
| Question 79: Why can commodities not express their values in their own use values? |
| [121] Karl: Expression Commodities cannot express their values in their use values mainly because commodities are multi-faceted material products. It is a conglomeration of two separate, but reliant categories that comprise the holistic element of the commodity. I mentioned that the commodity is multi-faceted implying that even the two said categories can thus be divided and sub-divided into a plethora of new underlying components. Much the same way as all things in nature work, ie: atoms, and subatomic particles. In the same manner an atom is dependent on the subatomic particle, although it is a differentially separate, a commodity also relies on individual sub-components that are unique, and cannot be found as a holistic representation of the commodity as it stands as a separate entity. |
| The two aspects of the commodity at hand, are values, and use values. As one further studies Marx, we come to realize these are derived expressions of other unique categories, mainly concrete labor (useful labor), and abstract labor. It has been stated in the reading, “If something is a commodity it must take the form of a commodity...since the commodity has a two-fold character it needs a double form.” This form is the unique and separate quality that adds shape and dimension to the commodity, it cannot be intertwined or it will subtract and change the actual form of the commodity to something entirely different from the character of the original. For example concrete labor is instrinsically, and inseparably connected with certain elements such as use value, as is abstract labor connected with the value of the commodity. Marx believed the two were unique in character, in that abstract labor and value are a “mental process”, while concrete labor and use value contained unique physical properties. Thus the two values cannot express themselves interchangably, as they are found in two different mediums. |
| It is the heterogeneous aspects of abstract labor, and concrete labor that serve as essential tools in answering the question of why commodities cannot express thier values in their own use values. Just as the underlying forms of labor are separate, and reliant identies. So also are the products they produce or “conceive”, mainly value and use value. They cannot be expressed in each other or else the unique identity of the value and use value will be changed into a form unrecognized from the original properties combining the two values. |
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