File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1994/marxism_15-28Aug.94, message 93


Date: Sat, 20 Aug 1994 13:49:31 -0500 (EST)
From: wesley david cecil <wcecil-AT-indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: value


Chris, that was an excellent post on value, thanks for taking the time to 
do such a thorough job. 
 I do have a question that I am working on that also touches on the 
question of use-value.  Namely, in the second paragraph of Chapter 1, 
Marx writes "A commodity is . . . a thing which through its qualities 
satisfies human needs of whatever kind.  the nature of these needs, 
whether they arise,  for example, from the stomach, or the imagination, 
makes no difference"(Vintage Edition 125).  Tow paragraphs later Marx 
moves to introduce use value "But this usefulness does not dangle in 
mid-air.  It is condtitioned by the physical properties of the commodity 
and has no existence apart from the latter"(126).  Now, "physical 
properties" and "qualities" would seem to be pretty synonomous here, 
clearly, however, the usefulness of an object in statisfying human needs 
is in no way restricted to a commodities physical properties.  So this 
would seem to unhinge the stability of use-value a bit.(?)  Any comments 
would be greatly appreciated.
Wes


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