This question <95|95> overall <94|96> Geo: <504|172-10>. graded B+  
  Question 199: Summarize, in your own words, Marx's search for the “secret” of the fetish-like character of the commodities.   
  [95] Geo: fetish   Marx did not do a very good job of explaining the “secret” of the fetish like character of the commodities. He used the description of why the abstract labor and the commodity value were or are placed at the levels they are placed at (in relation to the private labor and market value) to explain how the commodity takes on its actual value (the use value). Now this explanation made it much more clear as to why Marx focuses on the idea that labor is something so important to the value of a comodity, but it does not help explain how or if there is a “secret” to the idea that a non-needed commodity has the value it has. The relation of the commodity to other commodities of equal value (in the market) is not what Marx would call a secret. Therefore, Marx falls short in his search for the “secret” of the fetish like character. But by giving this title to an idea, it somewhat helps one to understand that there is a difference in the value of a commodity when it is a neccessity or just a materialistic commodity.   
  Hans: Fetishism is not about non-needed commodities having the values they have.   
 
 
 
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