| This question <113|113> overall <109|111> Dyoung: <18|184>. graded B– |
| Question 242: Whether the commodity is “mysterious” or not is a value judgment which can neither be proved nor disproved. Do you agree? What would Marx say about this? |
| [110] Dyoung: The mystery of commodities: why are they mysterious? I agree, but mostly because I am an antagonist. In many aspects commodities could be considered to have a mysterious component that adds to their value. I don't think this goes for all commodities. There are also many commodities that seem to be free of mystery, it simply takes x amount of labor and other costs to create the commodity, so therefore the commodity costs y. There are things that in some way change commodities so they have more or less value, besides supply and demand, things that are created socially, for example brand name items cost more simply because of the brand name… this is what I feel creates the mystery. I don't agree that all commodities have this “mystery” component and that's why I feel that it would be a value judgement, which if it is then a value judgement each person is deciding based on their own view of each commodity, and it becomes impossible to say which commodities have this “mystery” component and which do not. |
| Marx would disagree with this statement. To him, it was very important to understand why they are mysterious. And I think his interpretation of the mystery factor is that each commodity contains the development of capital and money, yet each commodity is also influenced externally by the characters of capital and money. Each is in the commodity intrinsically, yet each also can act on the commodity to further determine the commodity's value. |
| Hans: Even if the value of a commodity is not propped up in your mind by a marketing campaign, alone the fact that commodities can be exchanged for each other, or bought and sold, is mysterious. The commodities are active in these transactions because the prices are not set by the commodity owners, but seem to reside in the commodities themselves. This is basically things telling people what to do, not the other way around. |
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