Using Capital, Ch. 1, Section 4, Dunayevskaya (especially pp. 98-102, 111), and class discussions as your sources, examine Marx on the fetishism of commodities, one of his most discussed writings nowadays. First, look at his key descriptive points, issues such as: What in Marx’s view is the special nature of human relationships under capitalism? What does he mean when he writes that human relations are thing-like? What is being hidden or fetishized? Second, look at his cross-cultural comparisons, for example: How are modern capitalist social relations between upper and lower classes different from those in precapitalist societies such as European feudalism or the patriarchal peasant household? Are class relations and exploitation of the subordinate classes more open or more concealed? Is society less or more egalitarian? He also tries to imagine what he considers to be the noncapitalist society of the future, i.e., his notion of communism. How does “free and associated labor come into all this, as yet another possible form of human interaction? Are human relationships clearer or more concealed here? What happens to social classes and to private property over the means of production? Finally, based on your own experiences in work situations or those of people close to you, to what extent does Marx’s discussion of fetishism at the beginning of the Ch. 1, Section 4 describe accurately or inaccurately the situation of the worker in today’s capitalist workplace? Book: Marx, Capital, Vol. I (we need Vintage or Penguin edition, translated by Ben Fowkes, not the older and less-well-translated International Publishers edition) Link:Show more
