Date: 22 Sep 96 17:21:21 -0300
From: Pablo Gilabert <pablo-AT-carrenet.com>
Subject: Commodity Fetishism



1. I think you may find much help in chapter V and Appendix I of G.A.COHEN's
'Karl Marx's Theory of History, a defence' (Princeton UP, 1978).
2. I think the main distinction in this problem is between 'material' and
'social'. It is true that in a moment of the secction about commodities
fetishism Marx speaks about the 'sensuous'as opposite to the
'mistification', and equates the former with the 'material'. But in other
contexts Marx doesn't seem to do the same: the 'material' could be only
accesible by reflection (when 'appearance'and 'essence' contradict each
other).




 RP> Can anyone help me on this one?
 RP> I'm engaged in research on commodity fetishism and I've reached a bit of
 RP>  RP> an impasse on the question of 'sensuousness'  in Marx.

 RP> William Pietz in his essay "Fetishism and Materialism: the limits of
 RP> theo RP> ry in Marx" in Apter and Pietz _Fetishism as Cultural Dscourse_  (1993  RP> CUP),  explains that the term 'sensuous desire'  is taken directly from  RP> Hegel and gives a reference to Hegel's _Lectures on the Philosophy of
 RP> Rel RP> igion_.
 RP> Pietz further points out that the term 'sensuous' plays a big part in
 RP> Mar RP> x's re-thinking of Hegelianism and his critique of Feuerbach. Apter and  RP> Pietz 1993:137
 RP> Derrida, in _The Specters of Marx_ (Routledge 1994), also picks up on
 RP> thi RP> s point: "Marx does not say sensuous *and* non-sensuous, or sensuous
 RP> *but RP> * non-sensuous; he says: sensuous non-sensuous,
 RP> sensuous-supersensible." RP>  Derrida 1994:151
 RP> A footnote from the English translator warns us that the usual
 RP> translatio RP> n of Marx 'conjures away this difficulty' with "a thing which transcends
 RP>  RP> sensuousness." Derrida 1994:192n.

 RP> Can anyone shed some more light on this argument? It may seem obscure,  RP> but I have a strong feeling that this topic is central to Marx's idea of
 RP>  RP> the phantasmagoric.
 RP> Has anything been written on the sensuous and left-Hegelianism that
 RP> might RP>  explain what is going on in more depth?
 RP> Finally, does anyone have an address for Pietz (E-mail or snail mail),  RP> or know where he is working?

 RP> Russell



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