| This question <56|60> overall <56|60> Pete: <1910|72>. graded B weight 50% |
| Question 38: Do things have use-value because people use them, or do people use things because they have use-value? |
| [59] Pete: The use-value is both in the object and in the user. A hammer, for instance, has no use as a hammer to a man with no hands. As a door stop, for this man, the hammer has value. |
| Use-value is determined by the user. The saying, “One man's garbage is another's treasure.” |
| Society can set a value on an object for the usual use but an individual does not have to use the object for its usual use, therefore, the value is determined by the party that has the object and the party that wants the object. |
| Hans: Sometimes Marx talks about the use-value of an object for its user; but in most cases he talks about the use-value of an object without regard of particular users. A hammer is still a use-value for both hammering and as a doorstop whether its owner has hands or not. |
| However Marx's concept of use-value is relative to society. If a certain plant can be used as a medicine but society has not yet discovered this property, then the plant does not have the use-value of a medicine. |
| In Marx's theory it is not true that exchange-values are determined by the use-values. |
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