Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- Part I The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part II The Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part III The Underdevelopment of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part IV The Value Theory of Labour
- Conclusion to Part IV
- Conclusion
- Appendix: On Social Classes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
18 - The Reification of Commodity Fetishism in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 1, Section 4, and Vol. III, Ch. 24
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- Part I The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part II The Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part III The Underdevelopment of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part IV The Value Theory of Labour
- Conclusion to Part IV
- Conclusion
- Appendix: On Social Classes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
We cannot leave our discussion of the first nine chapters of Capital, Vol. I without looking at what is perhaps the most difficult to understand and really enigmatic section of any chapter in the whole of Capital; even more difficult than the first few chapters of Capital on the subject of value. I am referring to section 4 of Chapter 1, Vol. I, entitled ‘The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof ‘ (1974a, 76–87 [1976, 163–77]). Following Georg Lukács deservedly famous essay entitled ‘Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat’ (History and Class Consciousness, 1971, 83–222), most discussion of commodity fetishism has been in terms of Lukács’ concept of reification, and has focused on the question of ‘false’ consciousness (i.e. the alleged failure of the working class to develop a revolutionary class consciousness) and/or the question of realism: the level of reality that is said to underlie the appearance of things. In what follows I will adopt a very different approach to this question partly because I will be concerned to present a close textual analysis of Marx's discussion of commodity fetishism in Capital, Vol. I (especially the first four pages, 1974a, 76–9 [1976, 163–8]), but mainly because I will argue that Marx's concept of commodity fetishism has nothing at all to do with the question of the false consciousness of the working class or with Lukács’ concept of reification. When one reifies something one treats something which is abstract, social or ideal as though it was merely thing-like, concrete or nonsocial. However, when one fetishizes something one attributes to something which really is a thing (e.g. high-heeled shoes or a totem pole) the quality of being more than just a thing and, specifically, of being social, sexual or spiritual. When we fetishize commodities therefore, we do not falsely attribute a social relationship between people at work to a relationship between things, as Lukács claims, but, on the contrary, we attribute to something which really is a thing (in this case a commodity) the property of having a spiritual reality or a social or sexual existence over and above its thing-like appearance.
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- Karl Marx's 'Capital': A Guide to Volumes I-III , pp. 156 - 167Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2021