What is not meant by fetish:

ww ww

The table as use-value and as commodity

As a use-value, a table is simply a table: as a material object, it can be used for various purposes (to eat or write on, as firewood, etc.).

As a commodity, the table becomes «mysterious» …

… as soon as it emerges as a commodity, it changes into a thing which

transcends sensuousness. It not only stands with its feet on the ground, but, in relation to all other

commodities, it stands on its head … (p. 163)

The enigma of the commodity form

Whence, then, arises the enigmatic character of the product

of labour, as soon as it assumes the form of a commodity? Clearly,

it arises from this form itself.(p. 164)

The solution of the enigma ...

The mysterious character of the commodity-form

consists therefore simply in the fact that the commodity reflects the social characteristics of men’s own labour as […] the socio-natural properties

of these things.(pp. 164–65)

Private independent producers

I assume pants will sell

well.I hope that there will

not be too many tables on the market.

I suspect there is a great need

for chairs.

I am speculating that the market

needs tables.

I bet I can sell all of my

pants.

The total labour of societyThe private producers A, B, C, D, and E produce the products a, b, c, d, e, which are to be exchanged on the market as commodities.

e and d are not exchanged. The labour expended on them is not part of the total labour of society.

a, b and c are exchanged. The labour expended upon them becomes part of the total labour of society, and has the character of abstract labour.

The total labourof society

A

aB

bE e

d

D

c

C

Exchange on the market

Social relations between things – material relations between people

Agency and consciousness

… by equating their different products to each

other in exchange as values, they equate their different kinds of

labour as human labour. They do this without being aware of it.

(pp. 166–67)

Reification and naturalization

The chair has a value: always and everywhere.

=

Examples of naturalization

That which is only valid for this particular form of production appears «to those caught up in the relations of commodity production» (p. 167) as natural, trans-historical and final:

In every society Only in commodity production

>>>

Product of labourRelations between peopleConcrete useful labour

CommodityRelations between thingsAbstract human labour

… Things that control them …

Association of free men

What do we need?

Let’s get it organized!

And howmuch?

Who can and wants to do

something?

Critique of political economy I

As regards value in general, classical political

economy in fact nowhere distinguishes […] between labour as it appears in the

value of a product, and the same labour as it appears in the

product’s use-value.(p. 173, footnote 33)

Critique of political economy II

Political economy has indeed analysed value and its

magnitude, however incompletely, and has uncovered the content concealed within

these forms. But it has never once asked the question why this content has assumed that particular form …

(pp. 173–74)