SOCI 2005 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Commodity Fetishism, Primitive Accumulation Of Capital, For Marx
10 Jun 2018
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June 04, 2018
Lecture 8
What is the secret of primitive accumulation?
• Workers used to be tied to the land, they were forced off the land and put into factories.
Capitalism developed according to Marx is not self-valorizing thing (like Adam Smith or
weber would like to believe). It developed due to Calvinist estheticism, people work hard,
they don’t spend money then invest this money.
• Alienation, fetishism, reification of social relations
• There are only two types of freedom. 1. Freedom to work 2. Freedom to die.
• Mark is concerned with actual human being, and how their struggle.
• …Freedom of the individual, although he does not deny formal freedom, the kind of
freedom Marx discusses, is one kind only is the freedom to choose to live one decent life
and the freedom to be able to consume their own product. Labor according to Marx under
capitalism has social character. The term social is largely expressed by the exchanged of
the product.
Commodity Fetishism
• The social relations are attached to the commodity itself than the actual relations between
human beings. In the chapter of Commodity fetishism.
• Commodity fetishism is an essential element of Marxist critique of capitalist society.
value and social relations becomes property of qualities rather than characteristics of
relations between humans.
Alienation
• For Marx the history of Mankind has double aspect. It was a history of increasing control
of man over nature at the same time as it was a history of increasing alienation over time.
alienation maybe described as a condition in which men are dominated by forces other
than their own creation which confronts them as alien powers. the notion is central to all
of Marx work and still relates to his later work. Marx asks the question under what
circumstances do men project their power or their own values?
• All major spheres such as religion, state and the political economy are marked by a
condition of alienation, they are also interdependent. Economic alienation under
capitalism is involved in men’s daily activities not only in their minds→ Economic
alienation is physical. Alienation is labor domain is what concerns Marx. And Marx talks
about 4 different forms of Alienation in the production. He is alienated from the 1.
objects they produce 2. The process of production 3. Alienated from himself (Marx
talked about how the workers never feel home when they work- the only time they feel
home is what they are not working) 4. Alienated from fellow workers.
• The objects produced by labor, Marx says that object itself stand opposed to labor as an
alien being as a power independent of the producer. The more the worker expand himself
in work the more powerful becomes the world of object because the more time their
worker puts in the process, the more objects he produces. Alienation does only appear as
a result but also in the process of the production itself. If the product of the labor is
aliened, production itself must be active alienation-- the alienation the object of the labor
merely summarizes in the alienation of the work activity itself. The worker denies
himself in the work. In work, the worker does not belong to himself, but to the worker.
The only time he feeds himself at home is during his leisure time. this is the relationship
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Document Summary
What is the secret of primitive accumulation: workers used to be tied to the land, they were forced off the land and put into factories. Capitalism developed according to marx is not self-valorizing thing (like adam smith or weber would like to believe). It developed due to calvinist estheticism, people work hard, they don"t spend money then invest this money: alienation, fetishism, reification of social relations, there are only two types of freedom. Labor according to marx under capitalism has social character. The term social is largely expressed by the exchanged of the product. Commodity fetishism: the social relations are attached to the commodity itself than the actual relations between human beings. In the chapter of commodity fetishism: commodity fetishism is an essential element of marxist critique of capitalist society. value and social relations becomes property of qualities rather than characteristics of relations between humans. Alienation: for marx the history of mankind has double aspect.
