| This question <152-4|156-2> overall <156|156-2> Kapitalism: <134|158-1>. graded A |
| Question 18: 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? |
| [156-1] Kapitalism: Marx examined a commodity and determined that it was the “elementary” form of wealth in a capitalist society. Moreover, Marx shows that value or commodity value is assigned to a commodity to give it the ability to be exchanged. He then goes on to single out commodities or a “heap of commodities” as what identifies societies that are capitalist. So according to Marx, value is assigned to commodities and before that value can be identified, one has to have something to start with. If a commodity is anything that is made available for sale or exchange (social form), it is the item that is exchanged that has value associated with it, not the other way around. Thus one has to start with a commodity to discover what it might hold in the form of value. |
| After reducing capitalism to its lowest starting point, just as a scientist may look for the cell as a building block, Marx reduced capitalism to the commodity as a starting point. A commodity is also the starting point to examine labor more closely. In order to examine the principles of congealed abstract labor, value must be established, and value finds its roots in examining the commodity. So as a building block to understanding capitalism, one must start with the commodity to understand its foundations. |
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