This question <81|173> overall <82|84> Chris: <20|115>.

Question 141: If the first chapter is such a systematic discussion of value, why is it then called “Commodities” and not “Value”?

[83] Chris: value as the components of the whole “Commodity”.   Marx entitled his first chapter “Commodities” because commodities are at the heart of everything he discusses on capitalism. The in-depth discussion on values helps us to understand what makes a commodity, what makes an object more than something that merely satisfies needs or wants but makes it worth something in an exchange market, what gives it exchange-value. Before reading the first chapter I would have wrongly asserted that anything that has use or a use-value should accordingly be held to be a commodity but Marx discusses in length the exchange values and a commodity meant something different to me after that. If Marx had stepped right into commodities and overlooked what values meant to them he would have left a large gap in an already deep subject.

Hans: Chris, in the long message [81] I wanted to say that the true subject of Marx's work is indeed value, and the first chapter is called "commodity" because the commodity is a good starting point for studying value.

Chris: So I think I turned this around then. He starts with commodities because it is an easy way to begin an earnest discussion of value which drives capitalists.

Hans: Exactly.

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