ASSIGNED DOCUMENTS
Marx, Karl. Excerpt
from Capital, Vol. I. (1867).
Born in 1818 to a middle-class family in the western area of the German
Confederation, Marx studied law, philosophy and history at the universities of
Bonn and Berlin. At first the young Marx hoped to secure a professorship, but
he abandoned this idea in the 1840s. Instead, he began writing articles for
newspapers of the political opposition in both Germany and France. During this
early period he developed a materialist analysis of history that stressed the
importance of systems of economic production in determining the shape of
societies. In 1848 when revolutions swept across Europe, Marx and his lifelong
collaborator Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto.
After the failure of those revolutions, Marx and Engels continued to develop a
revolutionary economic and social analysis of capitalist societies, particularly
their own capitalist societies. Both Marx and Engels also played leading
roles in founding international socialist organizations of workers. In Capital,
Marx set out to analyze in depth the principles and effects of capitalist
economic relations. For the PDF of this reading click
here.Click here for the
selected, short excerpts from Capital.
Peck, Raoul, dir.
The Young Karl Marx (2017; 118 minutes).
Born in 1953 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Raoul Peck served as Haiti’s Minister
of Culture from 1996-97 and, in recent years, has emerged as a singularly
creative and impactful filmmaker. Before
making this historical feature film released in 2017, Peck directed the
documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” focused on James Baldwin. The film can be
found on Sakai for this course, but is much better seen on a big screen with
suitable projection and sound: if at all possible, attend the screening in
Benson Auditorium on Monday, March 21, starting at 7:30 pm. Though I probably will not be there when the
film starts at 7:30, I will be present at the end of the film, to hear your
questions and/or first impressions of the film, before our weekly workshop
discussion. If you choose to watch it from Sakai and have
any trouble with that, please email Victor Milhon-Martin of Pitzer AV.
QUESTIONS
As always, expect to prepare multiple drafts of each question
and to revise them with the care and thoroughness your ideas deserve. Some of these questions can be answered with
short responses, but please use complete sentences.
Question 1
a. & b. Provide a concise definition or glossary entry
for “use-value” and “exchange value,” as Marx uses these terms in this
reading. As always, be sure to speak
directly to this prompt, something like this: “By ‘use-value,’ Marx
means…” And, again as always,
incorporate aptly chosen quotations to support your answer. Finally review and be prepared to revise your
answer in light of your responses to the rest of this study guide.
c. Marx divides the full range of “human needs” into two
broad categories: “needs of the stomach” and “needs of the imagination.” Explain the distinction Marx is drawing here,
in regard to “human needs.” And note:
Marx is speaking figuratively, not literally, when he writes about “needs of
the stomach.”
d. On the first page of the assigned chapter, Marx writes,
“Every useful thing is a whole composed of many properties; it can therefore be
useful in various ways.” Illustrate this claim by discussing the “various”
(or plural) ways something you possess
is “useful” for you (or, in Marx’s terms, can be said to have plural
use-values). It would be great (bonus
points!) if your example involves use-values that meet both sorts of “human
needs” Marx delineates.
e. Are all things with use-values (or all “useful things”)
commodities, according to Marx? Explain and
give an example that illustrates your answer.
Question 2
Marx presents and discusses a number of ways the
exchange-value of a given commodity can be expressed. One of these ways of representing
exchange-value is what Marx calls “the money-form” (157). Here are
some exchange-values given in “the money-form,” in which all of the listed
items on the left (each item being a definite quantity of some commodity) has
the same (made up) money-value of $1000.
1 pair of Christian
Louboutin shoes = $1000
1/25th of a Civic Hybrid
automobile = $1000
40 bottles of Grey Goose
Vodka = $1000
1/5th of one dose of HIV medication = $1000
4 copies of an intro to chemistry textbook
= $1000
a. Present the exchange value for 1 pair of Christian
Louboutin shoes in the form that Marx calls “the expanded form” or “the total
form.”
b. Present the exchange-value of one bottle of Grey Goose
Vodka in “the simple form” in relation to dose(s) of HIV medication.
c. Imagine you go to Macy’s to buy a shirt. Which form of exchange-value will Macy’s
present to you?
d. In the example above, one dose of the HIV medication and
200 bottles of the Grey Goose Vodka cost the same amount ($5000). Discuss the use-values of each. Are their use-values also equal?
e. On Marx’s analysis, what is the common element of (or
the common element “congealed in”) one dose of the HIV medication and 200
bottles of the vodka, which is the basis of their having the same (or equal)
price?
f. On page 129, Marx argues that it is a conceptual
mistake—and a misunderstanding of his argument—to think that the more hours of
labor it takes to produce a given item, the greater the magnitude of
exchange-value (or the price) will be.
What precisely is it then that determines the magnitude of
exchange-value or price of a commodity, if it is not labor
time?
g.
Prepare notes on the following question, so you are prepared to discuss
it, but do not write this one up: As you re-read the Marx assignment, notice that
Marx in some cases speaks of “value” without specifying “use-” or
“exchange-”. What does he mean by
“value” in these cases?
Question 3
a. The last sentence on p. 297
begins, “The value advanced has not been valorized…” Provide a precise definition or glossary
entry for “valorized,” as it used here?
b. Provide a precise definition or
glossary entry for “surplus value,” as Marx uses the term.
c. Compare the first hypothetical
scenario of production, which ends with “the value of the product” being “equal
to the capital advanced,” to the second hypothetical scenario that follows and
ends very differently: “…the value of the product is thus one-ninth greater
than the value advanced to produce it; 27 shillings have turned into 30
shillings; a surplus-value of 3 shillings has been precipitated. The trick has
at last worked…” (301). What difference between the two hypothetical
scenarios accounts for, or explains, the dramatically different outcomes? (NOTE: the argument here is arguably the very
core of Marx’s critique of capitalism.)
Question 4 Prepare notes on the following
question, so you are prepared to discuss it, but do not write this one up: Marx uses
humor throughout Capital. Really, he does. Identify one passage in the reading where you
think the use of humor is important. Be
prepared to quote that passage and explain the humor and what Marx is doing
with it.
Question 5: pick one of the following two questions
about the film to address in writing and prepare notes for yourself about the
other one, so you can discuss it in class.
Option A: Recount and explain what occurs in the
opening scene of the film. Discuss its
significance for the film as a whole.
Option B: Identify and discuss any ideas presented in
the film that correspond to, or connect closely with, ideas in the assigned
Marx reading.