Study Guide Questions on Marx Reading
1a.
What does Marx mean by the “use-value" of a
commodity? Provide a concise and precise definition of the term, in
Marx's sense of it.
1b.
Marx holds that every commodity has a use-value (that is, he argues that if
something lacks a use-value, it cannot and will not be a commodity).
What, however, does Marx say about whether the the
use-value of a given commodity is singular? Can a given commodity have
more than one use-value or just one and no more? Your answer should
clearly identify Marx's position on this question and provide a brief
explanation of it. What is the reason, in Marx, for use-value of a
commodity either being singular (if that is what he claims) or not (if that is
what he claims).
1c. Provide an example that illustrates your answer to
1b. In other words, pick an example of a commodity that illustrates the
claim Marx makes about whether the use-value of a given commodity is singular
or plural.
1d & 1e. In speaking of the various “human needs”
that are met (in capitalist societies) by “commodities,” Marx writes that these
can be “needs” either of “the stomach” or of “the imagination” (p. 125).
What do you think Marx means by ‘needs of the stomach’? What do you think
Marx means by ‘needs of the imagination’? Unpack each of these figures of
speech, as used here by Marx.
1f. According
to Marx, can a good or service be useful, and thus have a significant use-value
(or significant use-values), and yet not be a commodity?
Explain. And if your answer is ‘yes,’ illustrate your answer with an
example of something, in a capitalist society, that has significant use-value
and yet is not a commodity.
2.
The following purely hypothetical statement of “exchange-values” is in what
Marx calls “the general form of value” (p. 157) and, more specifically, it is
in “the money-form of value”:
1
Versace
sweater
}
1/100th of a Civic Hybrid
automobile
}
10
bottles of AbsolutÔ
vodka
} == $250
1/10th of one dose of HIV
medication
}
1
Set of Textbooks for Intro to Chemistry at the 5 Cs }
As indicated on page 157 of the reading, the above should be read as
stating that all of the items on the left equal or cost $250. Starting
with this (hypothetical) set of exchange-values, answer the following
questions:
a.
Working from the above statement of exchange-values, create the equivalent
statement of exchange-values for the Versace sweater, giving this in what Marx
calls “the expanded form of value.”
b.
Working from the same statement of exchange-values, create what Marx calls “the
simple form of value” for the Versace sweater in relation to the HIV
medication.
c.
Working from the same statement of exchange values, create what Marx calls “the
simple form of value” for the Absolut Vodka in terms
of the Textbooks for Intro to Chemistry.
3.
Working once again with the exchange-values given in question 2, we find that
both 1 bottle of Absolut vodka and 1/100th of
one dose of HIV medication both equal (or both "cost") $25.
Keeping this result in mind, answer the following questions:
a.
Briefly describe the use value(s) of Absolut vodka
and HIV medication (in the ordinary way or ways these commodities are consumed
in the social world around you).
b.
What, if anything, is the overlap in their respective use-values? What do
their use-value(s) have in common?
c.
As we have already noted, in this example the exchange-value of one bottle of
the Absolut vodka and the exchange value of 1/100th
of one dose of HIV medication are "equal." Are the use-values
of the two commodities, as you have described them in 3a, "equal"?
d.
On Marx’s analysis, what is the common element of (or congealed in) both the
bottle of Absolut vodka and the 1/100th of
one dose of HIV medication that is "equal" and thus the basis of
their equal exchange-values?
4.
This question does not refer to the table in question 2. Marx argues that
it is a conceptual mistake to hold that the greater the quantity of labor
“expended to produce” a particular commodity, the greater its exchange value
will be (see p. 129 and 303). Thus, on Marx’s view it is not the sheer
quantity of labor that determines the magnitude of exchange value.
a.
Given this, what term does Marx use for the factor that does, on his analysis,
determine the magnitude of exchange-value?
b.
Briefly explain what Marx means by this other term?
5a. On page 297-8, Marx concludes a sketch of a scenario in
which a capitalist makes no profit; on page 303, he concludes a sketch of a
scenario in which the same capitalist makes a profit. Compare the two
scenarios. What is the difference that accounts for the different
outcomes in the two scenarios? Why is there no
profit in one scenario and profit in the other one?
5b.
Define the phrase, “the valorization process,” as used by Marx.
6. Find and quote
any passage in the assigned reading in which you think Karl (not Groucho!)
Marx was at least trying to be funny. Explain the joke you have
identified and tell us whether you were or were not genuinely amused by it and
why.