| This question <70|70> overall <67|69> Hawken: <18|18>. |
| Question 172: Give everyday examples of “material relations of persons” and “social relations of things.” |
| [68] Hawken: Social relations/material relations Social relations between things are exchange relations. If a certain thing, say money, can buy a specific thing/commodity, means that they have a social relation with each other. In other words, the social relation is the exchange of money for the commodity. |
| Applied to today's society I feel I can state that material things have become carriers of social relations. Material things have become too important for people in the society. Private enterprises search for profit are strengthen and do overcome the simple needs of the people. |
| Material relations of person will be the relationship between me and my hairdresser. I will continue our relationship as long as I want her to do my hair. Our relationship will still move on if she does a good job, and as long as I am alive. On the contrary, this is not a relationship I have with my friends, therefore we meet only once every 6'th month to reshape my hair. In my opinion, this was what Marx meant by material relations of persons. |
| In addition, I would like to add a comment to how social relations of things and material relations of person could be connected to each other. In my opinion, the relationship between money and commodities do make up for the lack of direct human relation between members of the society. I guess we can say that social relations of things and material relations of people complement each other. However, at the same time they are totally opposite. |
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