1
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(compelling music)

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00:00:13,589 --> 00:00:16,199
- So, we are starting back into Chapter 1.

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The first seven pages are
a kind of a bombshell.

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00:00:20,399 --> 00:00:23,250
A lot is contained in them,
which will be unfolded later.

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I want to mention that
the first few chapters

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have a kind of hypothetical form,

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hypothetical situation.

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They take up simple commodity exchange

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under the capital system.

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That is, more or less,

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if I go to you and try
to sell you something

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and you come to me and try
to buy something from me.

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This is not possible outside
of the whole capital system,

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but he has to find a way in

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and he wanted to find a way
in that is familiar to you.

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I call this the entry point,

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and I still, even though it's difficult,

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don't think it's a bad way to start.

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The entry point into the capital system

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is through the commodity,

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and it's very narrow,

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and there's a lot of stuff
stuck in that entryway.

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So, keep your eye on
the reduced situations

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that Marx gives you,

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like simple commodity
exchange between individuals,

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exchanging particular commodities

27
00:01:20,310 --> 00:01:22,683
from particular concrete
acts of production.

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And when he talks about groups

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and phenomena in general,

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these are all different things

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that have to get worked
out in their own analysis

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because, ultimately,

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the only way you can understand

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any individual phenomena in this system

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is by starting from the whole.

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This is, of course, impossible to do.

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Maybe the critical of
capital can see the whole.

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Maybe Marx, after 30
years, could see the whole,

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but it might not be the case.

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He might not have gotten there.

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So the first four chapters
has this heuristic situation,

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simple individuals, concrete commodities,

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and moving from there
to the genesis of value

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and towards general questions

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00:02:12,711 --> 00:02:16,409
and universal questions in this system.

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00:02:16,409 --> 00:02:18,030
Anything universal, by the way,

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00:02:18,030 --> 00:02:20,490
is historically bounded
to the capital system.

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It's universal, meaning it's necessary,

49
00:02:22,319 --> 00:02:25,859
and applies in every
situation under capital.

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That doesn't mean it's universal
in our historical moment

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only where capital is touching it

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because that is a quality
of the capital system

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that it universalizes

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and has moments of
absolute necessity in it.

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We'll talk more about
that as we go through.

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The guiding question

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for our reading of the
first four chapters is:

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What is value?

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Where does it come from?

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And what does it do?

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Those are the ways he works
out the what-is question

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because it has a source in the system

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and it is an operation.

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00:03:02,909 --> 00:03:06,900
And also what is the apparatus
that value needs around it

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in order to continue to exist?

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It needs a system.

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It isn't something that
works just on its own.

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It calls into existence
a system around it.

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His technique is the
phenomenology of the commodity,

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this is the first four chapters,

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which I'm calling the entry point.

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It's the most familiar,
or at least he thought so,

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even more familiar in a
certain sense than labor,

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but he gets to labor right away.

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And it is...

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It's quite narrow

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00:03:39,539 --> 00:03:42,299
and you can't totalize the
system from the commodity.

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So this is not a book about the commodity.

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This is a book about capital,

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and the way in is through the commodity.

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Does that make sense?

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Because as I said last time,

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capital is not an elemental theory,

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like chemistry, let's say.

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Although chemistry is beautiful

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because the compounds have
different emergent qualities

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than the elements.

88
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So you can't fully explain a
compound from its elements.

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And capital is the same.

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So, if you're in doubt,

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I know this sounds like
a salesman's trick,

92
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but if you're in doubt, read on.

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Things don't fully make sense

94
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from the perspective of the entry point.

95
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Like, you can't see a
house from the foyer.

96
00:04:22,379 --> 00:04:24,360
You need to go through the rooms first.

97
00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:25,949
You get a sense of the whole layout.

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And then, it will make sense

99
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what the foyer does in the house.

100
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It's an entry point.

101
00:04:33,959 --> 00:04:37,289
You will go through a set
of perspective switches.

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That's what Marx is gonna do for you

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and that's the phenomenological
aspect of this book.

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Phenomenology just means
the science of appearances

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or the way you experience things.

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Something always appears to someone else

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and it has another form that
is the way it doesn't appear.

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And in this phenomenology,

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you will be asked to switch perspectives.

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I'm just gonna give
you a little list here,

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from objects to processes,

112
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from things to ghostly
qualities that hang around them,

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from singles to doubles,

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and from elements to the whole.

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These are the perspectives,

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these are the perspective switches

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you're going to be asked to
accomplish as you read the book.

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So, it is a kind of
training for your psyche,

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for your perceptual apparatus,

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for your understanding apparatus.

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Today, we have an objective,

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which is part of our objective
is going to be to define use,

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use value exchange, exchange value,

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and the product of their
relationship, which is value.

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You're gonna be introduced to a new term,

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which is value form, it's a Marxian term,

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and it's very important

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for understanding how
the capital system works.

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Let's start with value.

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This is what the first
seven pages leap into

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and the first four chapters
try to define for you.

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You are witnessing the
birth of a fantasm value,

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but more than a fantasm,
a necessary fantasm,

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like freedom or democracy.

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But those belong to other systems.

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This is the fantasm that
belongs to the capital system.

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Value is a fantasm born out
of the lopsided relationship

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between use value and exchange value

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or between use and exchange.

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You're gonna hear how
it comes to be treated

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as an independent quasi-natural substance,

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something like a substance
in the philosophical sense.

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Value is a unique quality of things

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under the capital system.

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You'll see that Marx uses
an analogy of weight,

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like in a physical system.

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00:06:51,209 --> 00:06:55,529
The capital system has this
unique quality called value.

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Value is the weight of the capital system.

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Value is the substance that you can read

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through things like...

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00:07:02,430 --> 00:07:04,742
You can read weight in a physical system.

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And there's a whole set
of strange operations

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that the capital system uses

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that other social systems don't.

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Reflection,

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comparison, reduction, abstraction,

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reification, or objectification.

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These are all the processes
of the capital system.

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This is Marx's discovery.

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I'm gonna give you one definition of value

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and then we'll come back
to it a number of times.

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Value is a norm for comparing commodities

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in order to find the right
ratio in which to exchange them.

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Value is a norm for comparing commodities

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in order to find the right
ratio in which to exchange them.

166
00:07:51,209 --> 00:07:54,449
This doesn't quite get to the changes,

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the transformation of value,
in under the capital system.

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The way it compares commodities,
the way it comes to ratios,

169
00:08:03,420 --> 00:08:04,920
is gonna be different in capital

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00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:07,682
than in simple non-capitalist exchange.

171
00:08:08,730 --> 00:08:10,110
But if you wanna know what value is

172
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in a non-capital setting,

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it is something like what you need

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when you're not producing
solely for yourself

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and you don't live in paradise.

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Or you could say if you don't live in hell

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00:08:22,230 --> 00:08:27,230
where desire is 100%
and the supply is zero,

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and you don't live in paradise

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00:08:29,579 --> 00:08:34,579
where desire is at zero
and supply is at 100%.

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00:08:35,070 --> 00:08:36,153
You need value.

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00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:39,690
Value is what allows
you to trade your thing

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for something else you
need with someone else.

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00:08:42,779 --> 00:08:47,279
It's the way you decide how
many of your thing you're giving

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for how many of the other thing.

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00:08:50,009 --> 00:08:51,600
Under the capital system,

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00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:56,600
it isn't so much arrived at
according to desire or demand,

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00:08:57,179 --> 00:08:58,469
even in that case.

188
00:08:58,470 --> 00:09:03,470
It's arrived at according to
reduction, hypothesization,

189
00:09:05,580 --> 00:09:09,270
equalization, expression,

190
00:09:09,269 --> 00:09:12,750
mirroring all of these weird processes

191
00:09:12,750 --> 00:09:14,190
that Marx is gonna lay out for us,

192
00:09:14,190 --> 00:09:16,560
as though the capital system
were really very different

193
00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:17,909
than any other social system

194
00:09:17,909 --> 00:09:22,802
because this processes were
totally different and abstract.

195
00:09:25,590 --> 00:09:27,753
Abstraction being one of the processes.

196
00:09:29,519 --> 00:09:30,539
So, about value,

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00:09:30,539 --> 00:09:33,000
Marx is not saying there
is something like value,

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00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:35,972
like there is a chair
in a room, we know this.

199
00:09:37,289 --> 00:09:38,309
He is saying, however,

200
00:09:38,309 --> 00:09:41,822
we act as though it's there
like a chair in a room.

201
00:09:42,750 --> 00:09:44,789
It gets objectified.

202
00:09:44,789 --> 00:09:47,099
It has what he calls ghostly objecthood.

203
00:09:47,100 --> 00:09:49,899
A great translation by the
new translator, Paul Reitter.

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00:09:50,909 --> 00:09:52,740
It's true, ghostly objecthood.

205
00:09:52,740 --> 00:09:55,769
It's a kind of objecthood
that you can't touch

206
00:09:55,769 --> 00:09:57,419
and it can dissolve easily.

207
00:09:57,419 --> 00:09:59,469
It goes through a lot of transformations.

208
00:10:00,330 --> 00:10:04,473
Capital has its own ecology
and its own physics.

209
00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:08,790
So, on one hand, value
has a subjective side.

210
00:10:08,789 --> 00:10:10,110
We feel it to be there.

211
00:10:10,110 --> 00:10:11,257
If someone comes up to you and say,

212
00:10:11,256 --> 00:10:12,899
"I'll give you this
banana for your iPhone,"

213
00:10:12,899 --> 00:10:16,746
you're like, "But that's
not worth my iPhone."

214
00:10:16,746 --> 00:10:17,579
"How do you know?"

215
00:10:17,580 --> 00:10:18,509
"Well, I feel the value of this.

216
00:10:18,509 --> 00:10:20,759
I paid for it, or my parents paid for it,

217
00:10:20,759 --> 00:10:22,620
or the school paid for it, right?"

218
00:10:22,620 --> 00:10:25,620
You have a sense of its value,
but it's not only subjective,

219
00:10:25,620 --> 00:10:27,570
it is an objective need of the system

220
00:10:27,570 --> 00:10:29,073
for things to have value.

221
00:10:32,789 --> 00:10:34,199
So, one thing to keep in mind

222
00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:36,270
is you cannot do away with value

223
00:10:36,269 --> 00:10:38,252
just by feeling differently.

224
00:10:40,769 --> 00:10:42,600
Debunking value is not gonna help you

225
00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:45,000
with the capital system directly,

226
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:47,309
although it will help you
make better decisions.

227
00:10:47,309 --> 00:10:49,259
If you all decided to
give away all your stuff

228
00:10:49,259 --> 00:10:51,509
as if it were valueless,

229
00:10:51,509 --> 00:10:53,580
you would end up with no stuff,

230
00:10:53,580 --> 00:10:54,960
but capital would go on happily,

231
00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:57,360
especially in the people
who got it, your stuff.

232
00:10:58,740 --> 00:10:59,970
Does that make sense?

233
00:10:59,970 --> 00:11:01,442
We'll track a little bit the difficulties

234
00:11:01,442 --> 00:11:05,253
in finding positions of
resistance to the capital system.

235
00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:09,873
Debunking or refusing it
doesn't seem to be enough.

236
00:11:13,049 --> 00:11:15,543
Okay, we're starting with value.

237
00:11:19,049 --> 00:11:22,952
And you'll see, if you open the book,

238
00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:28,020
we spent last time talking
about the vocabulary

239
00:11:28,019 --> 00:11:29,552
of the opening paragraph.

240
00:11:33,750 --> 00:11:36,870
He begins talking about
what he calls use value,

241
00:11:36,870 --> 00:11:37,702
which is, by the way,

242
00:11:37,702 --> 00:11:39,629
already something different than use.

243
00:11:39,629 --> 00:11:43,470
Value is only in play if
you don't have the thing

244
00:11:43,470 --> 00:11:44,430
or if you're not using it.

245
00:11:44,429 --> 00:11:45,329
Once you're using a thing,

246
00:11:45,330 --> 00:11:47,883
it has no value because you have it.

247
00:11:49,500 --> 00:11:50,600
Once you have a thing,

248
00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:52,560
it really doesn't have
the same kind of value.

249
00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:54,779
Value is only if it's
threatened to be taken away

250
00:11:54,779 --> 00:11:56,129
or you need to get it.

251
00:11:56,129 --> 00:12:00,019
Value is a kind of
teletechnology, a way...

252
00:12:01,620 --> 00:12:05,399
of relating to something that you need.

253
00:12:05,399 --> 00:12:08,100
That thing has value
insofar as you need it.

254
00:12:08,100 --> 00:12:11,430
That is the value insofar
as you need it for use,

255
00:12:11,429 --> 00:12:12,662
he calls a use value.

256
00:12:14,250 --> 00:12:17,610
This seems like the
easiest thing all around,

257
00:12:17,610 --> 00:12:21,240
although value makes use
already in a system of exchange.

258
00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:23,759
So really outside of an exchange system,

259
00:12:23,759 --> 00:12:24,720
there's no use value.

260
00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:25,950
Again, if you're in paradise,

261
00:12:25,950 --> 00:12:27,570
you don't need to exchange everything.

262
00:12:27,570 --> 00:12:30,900
Let's say all the smartphones
and all the updates

263
00:12:30,899 --> 00:12:32,340
are all lying around on the ground.

264
00:12:32,340 --> 00:12:34,920
They fell from the tree of smartphones.

265
00:12:34,919 --> 00:12:37,879
They don't have any value for you.

266
00:12:37,879 --> 00:12:40,019
So value again is part
of an exchange system.

267
00:12:40,019 --> 00:12:40,852
Samuel?

268
00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:46,049
- Can we have a personal sense of value?

269
00:12:46,049 --> 00:12:49,049
Like, just how much we
want something, right?

270
00:12:49,049 --> 00:12:50,039
If we're in paradise

271
00:12:50,039 --> 00:12:52,192
and all the updates are
lying on the ground,

272
00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,720
we might not need a sense of hierarchy.

273
00:12:57,720 --> 00:12:59,430
We might not need to hierarchize them,

274
00:12:59,429 --> 00:13:01,049
but we still couldn't do it, right?

275
00:13:01,049 --> 00:13:01,882
It's not...

276
00:13:01,883 --> 00:13:02,913
Doesn't seem like it's a product,

277
00:13:02,913 --> 00:13:05,070
it's a really straight system.

278
00:13:05,070 --> 00:13:06,990
- Well, it would be satisfied immediately.

279
00:13:06,990 --> 00:13:09,149
So, you wouldn't need value.

280
00:13:09,149 --> 00:13:12,480
Value is the delay of
that satisfaction, right?

281
00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:14,519
Value is what comes into play

282
00:13:14,519 --> 00:13:17,069
while you're waiting or
trying to get something

283
00:13:17,070 --> 00:13:18,090
that would be use value,

284
00:13:18,090 --> 00:13:21,690
insofar as it's valuable
to you because you need it.

285
00:13:21,690 --> 00:13:23,146
But if it's right there,

286
00:13:23,145 --> 00:13:28,145
there's no real value for
an infant until the feeder,

287
00:13:28,529 --> 00:13:30,486
whoever that is, says,

288
00:13:30,486 --> 00:13:32,730
"I'm tired, you're not gonna eat now."

289
00:13:32,730 --> 00:13:36,206
And you're like, "Wow, milk, valuable."

290
00:13:37,950 --> 00:13:39,573
Rudimentary value systems.

291
00:13:41,519 --> 00:13:45,389
Use values satisfy a human
want or need of whatever kind.

292
00:13:45,389 --> 00:13:49,052
They are multiple, they differ in quality,

293
00:13:51,330 --> 00:13:53,790
and Marx is not interested in this.

294
00:13:53,789 --> 00:13:56,099
So, if you're concerned about use things,

295
00:13:56,100 --> 00:13:58,830
like some people are, who live their life.

296
00:13:58,830 --> 00:14:00,660
You need a hammer, you
need to go get a hammer.

297
00:14:00,659 --> 00:14:02,339
Marx is not gonna talk about that.

298
00:14:02,340 --> 00:14:03,173
In the beginning,

299
00:14:03,173 --> 00:14:07,110
he is setting aside the spheres
he's not going to go into,

300
00:14:07,110 --> 00:14:12,110
and one of them is the infinite
world of useful things.

301
00:14:12,899 --> 00:14:14,490
Anything can become useful,

302
00:14:14,490 --> 00:14:18,060
and your tasks that you
use it for will change

303
00:14:18,059 --> 00:14:19,319
according to what you imagine,

304
00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,600
according to what someone
tells you you need,

305
00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:26,600
according to what confronts
you at any moment.

306
00:14:27,629 --> 00:14:29,490
This is on page 14.

307
00:14:29,490 --> 00:14:32,940
The usefulness of a thing
makes it into a use value.

308
00:14:32,940 --> 00:14:36,000
Again, I think it's a little
bit more complicated than that,

309
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:37,649
but this is very important

310
00:14:37,649 --> 00:14:40,860
'cause he's going to contrast
it with exchange value.

311
00:14:40,860 --> 00:14:42,060
Usefulness, in this sense,

312
00:14:42,059 --> 00:14:43,500
doesn't hover above us in the air.

313
00:14:43,500 --> 00:14:46,299
It's determined by the
properties of a commodity's body.

314
00:14:49,860 --> 00:14:53,220
Just so we know, that does
not have to be physical.

315
00:14:53,220 --> 00:14:56,310
It can be a word document.

316
00:14:56,309 --> 00:14:59,819
That's not physical; it has
a physical manifestation.

317
00:14:59,820 --> 00:15:02,010
It can be a dream if you're...

318
00:15:02,009 --> 00:15:04,860
Whatever you're doing with
that dream is useful to you,

319
00:15:04,860 --> 00:15:06,243
doing psychoanalysis,

320
00:15:07,230 --> 00:15:08,580
whatever those qualities are.

321
00:15:08,580 --> 00:15:12,389
It can be a service, which is
not a physical object, right?

322
00:15:12,389 --> 00:15:14,009
A service can be commodified.

323
00:15:14,009 --> 00:15:19,009
I sew your shirt for you,
let's say, your shirt is fine.

324
00:15:19,679 --> 00:15:20,829
Nice shirt, by the way.

325
00:15:22,769 --> 00:15:27,769
And you pay me for it, that
act has a delimited contours,

326
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:31,679
you know when it starts,
you know when it's done,

327
00:15:31,679 --> 00:15:33,539
you know how long it takes.

328
00:15:33,539 --> 00:15:37,079
It has a use value to the shirt owner,

329
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:39,960
and that is perfectly well commodifiable.

330
00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:40,793
There's no difference

331
00:15:40,793 --> 00:15:44,879
between physical commodities and services.

332
00:15:44,879 --> 00:15:46,679
So, if they tell you the service economy

333
00:15:46,679 --> 00:15:47,512
is fundamentally different,

334
00:15:47,513 --> 00:15:49,740
it is not fundamentally different.

335
00:15:49,740 --> 00:15:51,509
It certainly changes the way people live,

336
00:15:51,509 --> 00:15:53,639
what kind of concrete jobs you do.

337
00:15:53,639 --> 00:15:54,600
But in terms of value,

338
00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:56,600
the value moves around exactly the same.

339
00:16:00,990 --> 00:16:03,930
This is the province of what
he calls commodity studies,

340
00:16:03,929 --> 00:16:05,159
which I'm not sure exists,

341
00:16:05,159 --> 00:16:07,923
but that's not what he's gonna do.

342
00:16:09,149 --> 00:16:10,889
Okay, so use value is the property

343
00:16:10,889 --> 00:16:13,322
of being able to satisfy
a human want or need.

344
00:16:15,539 --> 00:16:18,870
It involves actually
doing this as a practice

345
00:16:18,870 --> 00:16:20,702
and activity use.

346
00:16:22,289 --> 00:16:25,293
So, we know that use value
is already abstracted.

347
00:16:27,870 --> 00:16:29,072
It's potential,

348
00:16:30,659 --> 00:16:32,159
it means it can be used;

349
00:16:32,159 --> 00:16:34,079
and it's abstracted in the sense

350
00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:37,379
that in any of the concrete situations

351
00:16:37,379 --> 00:16:38,909
in which you use something,

352
00:16:38,909 --> 00:16:40,112
this is called use.

353
00:16:42,179 --> 00:16:45,659
Value is realized, use
value is realized, when?

354
00:16:45,659 --> 00:16:48,329
When a thing is used, right?

355
00:16:48,330 --> 00:16:50,490
And the thing is, in a sense,

356
00:16:50,490 --> 00:16:53,399
has a use value used up
when you're done using it.

357
00:16:53,399 --> 00:16:56,009
You may actually use up the
usefulness of the thing, too,

358
00:16:56,009 --> 00:16:58,143
if it's, let's say, a banana.

359
00:16:59,159 --> 00:17:01,110
When you eat it, it's no longer useful.

360
00:17:01,110 --> 00:17:02,789
The peel is not useful.

361
00:17:02,789 --> 00:17:06,663
And incidentally, the
value body of a commodity,

362
00:17:07,650 --> 00:17:10,560
very different than the
use body of a commodity.

363
00:17:10,559 --> 00:17:12,659
Well, it's related to the
use body of the commodity.

364
00:17:12,660 --> 00:17:14,670
The peel is not really part of the value.

365
00:17:14,670 --> 00:17:15,962
Well, it is kind of,

366
00:17:16,950 --> 00:17:19,799
say it's part of the value in
that it protects the fruit.

367
00:17:20,670 --> 00:17:22,769
But there's many physical
qualities of a body

368
00:17:22,769 --> 00:17:26,879
that are not related to
the use or the exchange.

369
00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:29,700
So, for example, a banana can
be green, it can be yellow,

370
00:17:29,700 --> 00:17:32,549
it can be slightly brown, it
can be small, it can be big,

371
00:17:32,549 --> 00:17:36,692
it can be like cardboard,
it can be like sugar.

372
00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:38,820
And in all of those cases,

373
00:17:38,819 --> 00:17:41,133
in fact, the exchange value remains.

374
00:17:42,258 --> 00:17:47,192
What's required is that there's
the usable part is usable.

375
00:17:48,690 --> 00:17:52,799
Now, it could be that
cardboard bananas end up...

376
00:17:52,799 --> 00:17:55,230
You end up not buying that brand anymore.

377
00:17:55,230 --> 00:17:56,670
So, the usable,

378
00:17:56,670 --> 00:17:59,070
that is a quality that
relates to its use value.

379
00:17:59,069 --> 00:18:00,779
You have a question?
- Is it...

380
00:18:00,779 --> 00:18:02,899
Or what, like humans value (indistinct)?

381
00:18:04,289 --> 00:18:07,170
- Humans value this
particular thing socially.

382
00:18:07,170 --> 00:18:08,003
- Socially.

383
00:18:08,940 --> 00:18:11,182
- We'll talk a little
bit about what that is.

384
00:18:12,569 --> 00:18:14,399
The kinds of things that
have use values, again,

385
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:19,397
are physical objects, services,
intellectual objects, media,

386
00:18:20,309 --> 00:18:23,579
processes like education or defense.

387
00:18:23,579 --> 00:18:24,899
They can all have use value.

388
00:18:24,900 --> 00:18:25,950
So, under capitalism,

389
00:18:25,950 --> 00:18:29,519
they can all have exchange
value potentially.

390
00:18:29,519 --> 00:18:31,410
There is a world of useful things here:

391
00:18:31,410 --> 00:18:33,960
food, energy, clothing, tools,

392
00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,710
we can think of many of
them that you could study.

393
00:18:37,710 --> 00:18:41,462
And think about a kind of
anthropology of human activities.

394
00:18:43,380 --> 00:18:45,960
Anthropology had to change
under capital, though,

395
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:49,019
to be an anthropology of
the way human activities

396
00:18:49,019 --> 00:18:52,863
are used by the system to produce value.

397
00:18:55,859 --> 00:18:57,512
Let's talk about exchange value.

398
00:18:59,309 --> 00:19:01,723
So, we need to talk about...

399
00:19:01,723 --> 00:19:04,832
It's a very peculiar phenomenon.

400
00:19:11,670 --> 00:19:14,279
It seems like this is the
double in the commodity,

401
00:19:14,279 --> 00:19:16,410
use value and exchange value.

402
00:19:16,410 --> 00:19:18,303
But really, the double is this.

403
00:19:20,430 --> 00:19:21,390
That's the double

404
00:19:21,390 --> 00:19:25,323
'cause exchange value
really only appears briefly.

405
00:19:27,119 --> 00:19:29,939
This is a longstanding
misunderstanding of the text,

406
00:19:29,940 --> 00:19:31,893
and Marx is not so clear about it.

407
00:19:35,369 --> 00:19:38,612
Exchange value is also
potential and abstract.

408
00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:43,593
Something has value
when it still has a use,

409
00:19:46,049 --> 00:19:49,859
but it has to be able to do
something else beyond its use

410
00:19:49,859 --> 00:19:51,959
in the capital system.

411
00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:55,170
So, again, exchange value
is not just a quality

412
00:19:55,170 --> 00:19:56,700
that resides in the thing,

413
00:19:56,700 --> 00:19:59,100
it's a quality that
tends toward an activity,

414
00:19:59,099 --> 00:20:01,649
a capitalist activity, which is exchange.

415
00:20:01,650 --> 00:20:02,850
Does that make sense?

416
00:20:02,849 --> 00:20:06,119
It doesn't just sit there, it happens,

417
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:09,209
and it's called up when you're exchanging.

418
00:20:09,210 --> 00:20:12,019
- Would you mind explaining,
like, that (indistinct)?

419
00:20:13,029 --> 00:20:15,180
- Yeah, I'm gonna do
that in just a second.

420
00:20:20,130 --> 00:20:22,830
Value is potential use and exchange,

421
00:20:22,829 --> 00:20:24,929
but it is also a ghostly substance

422
00:20:24,930 --> 00:20:27,640
that persists through all changes of form

423
00:20:29,220 --> 00:20:31,890
in commodities and labor.

424
00:20:31,890 --> 00:20:35,460
Labor can go from being
reserve to being active.

425
00:20:35,460 --> 00:20:37,803
A commodity can go from being used,

426
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:43,880
that is to say when it's
being worked in labor

427
00:20:44,220 --> 00:20:47,100
to being exchanged, to being
used, to being exchanged,

428
00:20:47,099 --> 00:20:50,492
to being totally consumed
and turning into waste.

429
00:20:52,049 --> 00:20:53,579
The value is conserved,

430
00:20:53,579 --> 00:20:55,349
even when something is totally consumed.

431
00:20:55,349 --> 00:20:57,799
Because if you eat food,
where does the value go?

432
00:20:58,980 --> 00:21:00,722
Yeah, you become the value,

433
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:04,830
the value goes into you as a laborer.

434
00:21:04,829 --> 00:21:05,879
So, you will notice

435
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:08,250
that value goes through
a set of transformations

436
00:21:08,250 --> 00:21:09,869
that is a circuit.

437
00:21:09,869 --> 00:21:11,639
As a closed circuit.

438
00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:13,950
It comes back around, you go
back to labor the next day,

439
00:21:13,950 --> 00:21:18,120
or you go back to your class
the next day with the energy.

440
00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:22,409
Again, energy and value seem to be

441
00:21:22,410 --> 00:21:25,680
in a kind of E equals mc
squared relationship here.

442
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:28,529
They can neither be created
nor destroyed in this system.

443
00:21:34,049 --> 00:21:35,879
Value is potential use in exchange,

444
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:37,720
but it's also a substance

445
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:41,009
that changes form from material,

446
00:21:41,009 --> 00:21:43,710
to immaterial, to material, to immaterial,

447
00:21:43,710 --> 00:21:46,590
from commodity, to money, to commodity.

448
00:21:46,589 --> 00:21:49,859
That's one of Marx's
famous formula, C-M-C.

449
00:21:49,859 --> 00:21:52,889
And you can also use it the
other way around, M-C-M.

450
00:21:52,890 --> 00:21:54,063
Value is conserved.

451
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:56,553
Love the conservation of value.

452
00:21:58,470 --> 00:22:00,779
The odd thing about the capital mode,

453
00:22:00,779 --> 00:22:02,279
which we're gonna get to the operation

454
00:22:02,279 --> 00:22:03,480
that this is all about,

455
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:07,500
is that value is conserved and augmented.

456
00:22:07,500 --> 00:22:12,500
That's where the capital
system perverts physics.

457
00:22:14,849 --> 00:22:16,919
It doesn't, Marx will say,

458
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,432
ultimately because you get
it out of the laborers.

459
00:22:22,140 --> 00:22:23,670
But it looks like it perverts physics.

460
00:22:23,670 --> 00:22:26,430
It looks like you put the
money into an investment

461
00:22:26,430 --> 00:22:30,930
and you get back 10% more, right?

462
00:22:30,930 --> 00:22:32,340
What's the rate now of return?

463
00:22:32,339 --> 00:22:33,419
I don't know, 7% more.

464
00:22:33,420 --> 00:22:36,483
To me, it's always like
going down in my mind.

465
00:22:38,819 --> 00:22:42,960
I guess it's the privilege of a Marxian

466
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:45,910
to not really understand where
their investments are going.

467
00:22:48,089 --> 00:22:52,619
The oddity of this is that it
only becomes exchange value

468
00:22:53,970 --> 00:22:55,803
when it's not being used,

469
00:22:58,589 --> 00:23:01,923
and it only becomes use value
when it's not being exchanged.

470
00:23:03,420 --> 00:23:04,500
When it's being exchanged,

471
00:23:04,500 --> 00:23:06,420
it holds the use value in reserve.

472
00:23:06,420 --> 00:23:08,170
It depends on it, it can't go away.

473
00:23:09,180 --> 00:23:10,410
But it's not being exercised.

474
00:23:10,410 --> 00:23:12,753
So only one can be activated at a time,

475
00:23:13,829 --> 00:23:18,000
and this is what Marx
calls a contradiction.

476
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,299
And we get back to the
question about doubles.

477
00:23:23,309 --> 00:23:24,240
Before we get to doubles,

478
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:26,940
you can see here is a different world

479
00:23:26,940 --> 00:23:28,230
from the world of use values,

480
00:23:28,230 --> 00:23:30,630
it's a world of exchangeables.

481
00:23:30,630 --> 00:23:31,800
You could talk about what they are,

482
00:23:31,799 --> 00:23:33,419
but they're not the
same thing as use values

483
00:23:33,420 --> 00:23:34,890
'cause things can be exchanged

484
00:23:34,890 --> 00:23:36,060
that have very little use value,

485
00:23:36,059 --> 00:23:41,059
like junk plastic toys that
you get in a goodie bag

486
00:23:41,460 --> 00:23:42,603
at a birthday party.

487
00:23:43,470 --> 00:23:45,450
Barely, you barely have any use value.

488
00:23:45,450 --> 00:23:48,600
The use value is like, "Oh, that's it."

489
00:23:48,599 --> 00:23:50,399
Then they go right in the garbage.

490
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:52,900
It's a brilliant, it's a
stroke of genius plastic,

491
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:56,043
and an evil.

492
00:23:57,029 --> 00:23:59,220
So here, you would plug in a picture.

493
00:23:59,220 --> 00:24:00,660
I'm so bad at PowerPoint,

494
00:24:00,660 --> 00:24:04,019
so you're just gonna have
to listen to this discourse

495
00:24:04,019 --> 00:24:05,317
because I was gonna, like,

496
00:24:05,317 --> 00:24:08,370
"Wouldn't it be nice to show
all the crazy commodities?"

497
00:24:08,369 --> 00:24:09,202
But,

498
00:24:10,500 --> 00:24:11,613
I'm not a visual guy.

499
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:18,960
So, these doubles are in
attention with one another,

500
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:21,452
which Marx sometimes
calls a contradiction,

501
00:24:23,220 --> 00:24:25,620
and a single thing like a commodity

502
00:24:25,619 --> 00:24:30,272
is a strange and strained
unity of contradictories.

503
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,860
But we have to understand
what this relationship is.

504
00:24:34,859 --> 00:24:37,319
Obviously, use value and exchange value

505
00:24:37,319 --> 00:24:39,182
are not logical opposites.

506
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,460
It is true that like Aristotle's
idea of a logical opposite,

507
00:24:44,460 --> 00:24:45,870
they cannot exist in the...

508
00:24:45,869 --> 00:24:47,339
They cannot be active in the same thing,

509
00:24:47,339 --> 00:24:50,039
in the same respect, at the same time.

510
00:24:50,039 --> 00:24:52,440
So, that's why he uses
this Aristotelian figure,

511
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:54,360
logical figure contradiction.

512
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:56,099
Does that make sense?

513
00:24:56,099 --> 00:24:59,189
Exchange value means it's not being used.

514
00:24:59,190 --> 00:25:01,890
Using means it's not being exchanged,

515
00:25:01,890 --> 00:25:03,590
but they have to both be in there.

516
00:25:07,380 --> 00:25:10,200
Now, you can make something
for use that isn't exchanged,

517
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,779
but that's outside of the
capital system for him.

518
00:25:12,779 --> 00:25:15,210
You can make something for yourself

519
00:25:15,210 --> 00:25:17,309
or you can use something
that's not exchangeable

520
00:25:17,309 --> 00:25:19,019
because it's common to everybody.

521
00:25:19,019 --> 00:25:21,660
This is why the enclosure of the commons

522
00:25:21,660 --> 00:25:23,759
was very important for capital.

523
00:25:23,759 --> 00:25:26,460
If they start to enclose air and water

524
00:25:26,460 --> 00:25:27,990
more than they already do,

525
00:25:27,990 --> 00:25:29,519
they will become commodified, too.

526
00:25:29,519 --> 00:25:31,289
Water is already on the way,

527
00:25:31,289 --> 00:25:35,252
but air, so far, is not,
this is Marx's example.

528
00:25:38,039 --> 00:25:41,670
So obviously, they're not
opposites, they're just different.

529
00:25:41,670 --> 00:25:44,009
And they could be complementary
under some systems,

530
00:25:44,009 --> 00:25:46,893
but in this system, they're
antagonistic to one another.

531
00:25:48,390 --> 00:25:49,710
Exchange value and use value.

532
00:25:49,710 --> 00:25:51,480
Okay, I'm spending a bunch of time on this

533
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:55,019
because these sorts of strange,

534
00:25:55,019 --> 00:25:59,009
and strained unities are
gonna come up over and over

535
00:25:59,009 --> 00:26:00,272
in the capital system.

536
00:26:01,890 --> 00:26:03,690
Yeah?
- Does Marx argue

537
00:26:03,690 --> 00:26:06,840
that these two concepts use exchange value

538
00:26:06,839 --> 00:26:09,374
exists within all systems of production?

539
00:26:09,374 --> 00:26:10,293
- Mm-mm.

540
00:26:11,279 --> 00:26:12,113
Nope.

541
00:26:13,079 --> 00:26:13,913
They don't.

542
00:26:14,970 --> 00:26:17,549
In any society bigger than one,

543
00:26:17,549 --> 00:26:20,133
you're likely to have use and exchange.

544
00:26:21,029 --> 00:26:26,029
But again, remember that
these terms, these concepts,

545
00:26:26,609 --> 00:26:28,559
this is a very important Marxian thought.

546
00:26:28,559 --> 00:26:29,460
It's a Hegelian thought,

547
00:26:29,460 --> 00:26:32,970
but Marx brings it back
to real living history.

548
00:26:32,970 --> 00:26:34,009
These terms are only necessary

549
00:26:34,009 --> 00:26:38,220
when society gets into a shape
where it needs those terms.

550
00:26:38,220 --> 00:26:40,860
So, again, if you're in paradise,

551
00:26:40,859 --> 00:26:44,429
you don't need the term
use or exchange because...

552
00:26:44,430 --> 00:26:45,570
Or think of an infant.

553
00:26:45,569 --> 00:26:46,589
You're just kind of eating,

554
00:26:46,589 --> 00:26:48,720
and pooping, and wandering around,

555
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:52,799
and you don't have to
distinguish your activities

556
00:26:52,799 --> 00:26:55,863
because you're never
in a situation of lack.

557
00:26:57,269 --> 00:26:58,170
Yeah.

558
00:26:58,170 --> 00:27:02,370
- And (indistinct) is about
the idea of work (indistinct)

559
00:27:02,369 --> 00:27:04,679
being somewhat separate from the strength,

560
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:07,560
in the sense that like our commodities

561
00:27:07,559 --> 00:27:08,460
are still part of us,

562
00:27:08,460 --> 00:27:12,360
like many people have through
commodities or art occlusion,

563
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:14,620
then this is the cell.

564
00:27:14,621 --> 00:27:17,280
(indistinct)

565
00:27:17,279 --> 00:27:20,940
- Well, humans separate from the system

566
00:27:20,940 --> 00:27:25,140
is gonna be hard to justify as we go on.

567
00:27:25,140 --> 00:27:25,980
So, let's just...

568
00:27:25,980 --> 00:27:27,509
Let's take the system in itself.

569
00:27:27,509 --> 00:27:29,339
It feels a little bit cold and distant,

570
00:27:29,339 --> 00:27:31,529
but Marx will argue that humans

571
00:27:31,529 --> 00:27:33,990
are in service of commodities,

572
00:27:33,990 --> 00:27:35,849
and that's the big difference.

573
00:27:35,849 --> 00:27:38,673
So, it's dehumanizing, for sure.

574
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:43,509
So, let's hold that question. Yeah.

575
00:27:43,509 --> 00:27:46,169
- Marx says that something is a use value

576
00:27:46,169 --> 00:27:47,700
or is exchange value.

577
00:27:47,700 --> 00:27:50,789
Why does he say is
relevant, has this value,

578
00:27:50,789 --> 00:27:52,994
or have a value?
- Uh-huh.

579
00:27:52,994 --> 00:27:54,479
That's a great question.

580
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:55,860
Did you hear that question?

581
00:27:55,859 --> 00:27:58,619
Marx says that things are use values

582
00:27:58,619 --> 00:27:59,939
and are exchange values,

583
00:27:59,940 --> 00:28:01,559
not that they have them.

584
00:28:01,559 --> 00:28:03,659
Because that is the being of the thing.

585
00:28:03,660 --> 00:28:08,519
The being of the thing is not
some independent, God-given,

586
00:28:08,519 --> 00:28:11,192
or nature-given set of qualities.

587
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:13,859
When in a social setting,

588
00:28:13,859 --> 00:28:15,869
which is all we're talking about here,

589
00:28:15,869 --> 00:28:19,622
you have a thing for use,
its qualities are the thing.

590
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:25,650
When you encounter a hammer,
you could have an aesthetic,

591
00:28:25,650 --> 00:28:28,769
now we're getting into the
precincts of German philosophy.

592
00:28:28,769 --> 00:28:31,109
You could have an aesthetic
relationship to that hammer

593
00:28:31,109 --> 00:28:33,240
and be like, "What a beautiful hammer."

594
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:35,009
But let's put that aside for now.

595
00:28:35,009 --> 00:28:37,383
I think that's fairly artificial.

596
00:28:39,359 --> 00:28:42,002
The hammer is weight, shape,

597
00:28:43,251 --> 00:28:47,220
the useful qualities for hammering a nail.

598
00:28:47,220 --> 00:28:49,380
And you don't really
see a hammer otherwise,

599
00:28:49,380 --> 00:28:53,250
unless you go to the
market, or Home Depot,

600
00:28:53,250 --> 00:28:57,210
and you're like, "How much
does this hammer cost?"

601
00:28:57,210 --> 00:28:58,829
And you're negotiating between cost

602
00:28:58,829 --> 00:28:59,759
and the kinds of qualities

603
00:28:59,759 --> 00:29:01,920
that will get your particular job done.

604
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:04,590
So for him, things are double,

605
00:29:04,589 --> 00:29:07,109
so much so that you have
a double consciousness.

606
00:29:07,109 --> 00:29:09,306
The double consciousness is,

607
00:29:09,307 --> 00:29:11,549
"Oh, my gosh, I can get
$5 for this hammer."

608
00:29:11,549 --> 00:29:12,629
Or, "Oh, my gosh,

609
00:29:12,630 --> 00:29:16,140
I can hammer in 20 nails
with this hammer in today.

610
00:29:16,140 --> 00:29:18,030
I can hammer just the kind of nail in

611
00:29:18,029 --> 00:29:22,019
that will hang my picture
or frame my barn."

612
00:29:22,019 --> 00:29:22,980
Does that make sense?

613
00:29:22,980 --> 00:29:26,099
And the thing is only that.

614
00:29:26,099 --> 00:29:29,039
There's nothing subsisting
outside of the capital system

615
00:29:29,039 --> 00:29:30,423
that is a thing in itself.

616
00:29:33,420 --> 00:29:34,253
Yeah.

617
00:29:37,349 --> 00:29:38,509
- So, if, like...

618
00:29:40,170 --> 00:29:42,570
Just like on the point
on like the contradiction

619
00:29:42,569 --> 00:29:45,899
between something having use value

620
00:29:45,900 --> 00:29:49,160
and exchange value at the same
time, like surely that's...

621
00:29:50,039 --> 00:29:53,039
I'm just not sure why like
they're applying to...

622
00:29:53,039 --> 00:29:56,430
Or those two concepts can
apply to like the same object

623
00:29:56,430 --> 00:30:00,269
because surely, like,
say I have like an apple,

624
00:30:00,269 --> 00:30:03,599
but that presents use value
or that has use value,

625
00:30:03,599 --> 00:30:06,809
insofar as the apple is
like an object of mine,

626
00:30:06,809 --> 00:30:07,919
desire to eat the apple.

627
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,279
So, it's like a property of the apple.

628
00:30:11,279 --> 00:30:15,106
But then like the exchange
value is, surely then, not...

629
00:30:16,470 --> 00:30:18,390
It's not just like a
property of the apple,

630
00:30:18,390 --> 00:30:21,030
it's like a relation between the apple

631
00:30:21,029 --> 00:30:22,440
and say, like, an arm.

632
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,390
So it's not like-
- Well, both in that case...

633
00:30:24,390 --> 00:30:25,560
It's a good question.

634
00:30:25,559 --> 00:30:28,166
In both of those cases,
the apple has a use value

635
00:30:28,166 --> 00:30:30,480
and the apple has an exchange value.

636
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:34,349
They are relational
characteristics of the apple.

637
00:30:34,349 --> 00:30:36,272
The apple is useful to you.

638
00:30:37,259 --> 00:30:40,202
So apples in themselves
belong to, I don't know,

639
00:30:41,339 --> 00:30:44,309
some alien observer from
an asteroid passing by.

640
00:30:44,309 --> 00:30:45,626
They're like, "Apple."

641
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:48,630
But they wouldn't point it out

642
00:30:48,630 --> 00:30:52,350
because it's of no use to
them one way or the other.

643
00:30:52,349 --> 00:30:54,480
So, both are social qualities.

644
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:59,279
That is to say they are
related to you as a desirer,

645
00:30:59,279 --> 00:31:01,379
and you desire apples
because in your culture,

646
00:31:01,380 --> 00:31:03,510
apples are things that get eaten,

647
00:31:03,509 --> 00:31:05,190
as opposed to using them

648
00:31:05,190 --> 00:31:07,890
to build a house or something like that.

649
00:31:07,890 --> 00:31:10,840
So there are two different
kinds of social characteristics,

650
00:31:12,990 --> 00:31:15,089
and you can tell immediately

651
00:31:15,089 --> 00:31:17,459
that these two things go together

652
00:31:17,460 --> 00:31:19,410
in a strange and strained way.

653
00:31:19,410 --> 00:31:21,033
They're always both there.

654
00:31:22,259 --> 00:31:27,089
One comes forward in exchange
and one comes forward in use.

655
00:31:27,089 --> 00:31:28,319
When you go to the supermarket,

656
00:31:28,319 --> 00:31:30,960
if you just shove your
face into the apple,

657
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:31,793
someone's gonna be like,

658
00:31:31,792 --> 00:31:35,339
"Wait, this is an exchange
place, we're not doing that here.

659
00:31:35,339 --> 00:31:38,519
You take that out, you pay for it, right?"

660
00:31:38,519 --> 00:31:40,200
And you always feel bad
when you eat the apple

661
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,299
and then you're gonna pay
for it up at the register.

662
00:31:42,299 --> 00:31:44,097
Like, "I was just so hungry."

663
00:31:44,097 --> 00:31:45,930
(Paul laughing)

664
00:31:45,930 --> 00:31:50,583
In fact, it has to be an
exchange first under capital.

665
00:31:51,599 --> 00:31:55,109
Just like you give your labor
first before you get paid,

666
00:31:55,109 --> 00:31:56,279
the thing is exchange,

667
00:31:56,279 --> 00:31:57,809
and Marx is going to show

668
00:31:57,809 --> 00:32:02,069
that not only are these things
strange and strained doubles,

669
00:32:02,069 --> 00:32:05,879
but they are reversed from
what you imagine them to be

670
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:09,030
in your humanistic way of thinking

671
00:32:09,029 --> 00:32:11,029
and from what they are in other systems.

672
00:32:13,289 --> 00:32:15,659
You don't look convinced,
but let's keep going.

673
00:32:15,660 --> 00:32:18,881
We have a lot to get through
and we barely started.

674
00:32:18,881 --> 00:32:22,410
(Paul clears throat)

675
00:32:22,410 --> 00:32:26,880
Okay, what we know about
things as use values, right?

676
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:28,230
The thing is a use value.

677
00:32:28,230 --> 00:32:29,250
It's a use value

678
00:32:29,250 --> 00:32:31,920
because someone put concrete
characteristics in it

679
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,700
through their concrete labor, right?

680
00:32:35,700 --> 00:32:38,130
Somebody put the
characteristics into an apple.

681
00:32:38,130 --> 00:32:39,570
They're not just born there.

682
00:32:39,569 --> 00:32:42,179
They've been refining
these trees for years,

683
00:32:42,180 --> 00:32:44,519
for decades, for centuries.

684
00:32:44,519 --> 00:32:47,339
And putting in the fertilizer
and putting in the work,

685
00:32:47,339 --> 00:32:49,049
and picking them right,
and polishing them,

686
00:32:49,049 --> 00:32:51,242
and all that kind of stuff.

687
00:32:52,319 --> 00:32:55,509
A skilled person uses
qualitatively specific activities

688
00:32:56,910 --> 00:33:00,000
to make something that
satisfies a human want or need.

689
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,313
This is called production, by the way.

690
00:33:03,599 --> 00:33:05,612
This is called product production.

691
00:33:07,349 --> 00:33:10,382
At a later point, a thing
gets taken for exchange.

692
00:33:11,849 --> 00:33:15,299
Temporally, production of a use value

693
00:33:15,299 --> 00:33:17,789
comes before production
of an exchange value.

694
00:33:17,789 --> 00:33:19,950
But logically, in the capital system,

695
00:33:19,950 --> 00:33:21,269
production of exchange value

696
00:33:21,269 --> 00:33:24,032
comes before production of use value.

697
00:33:25,319 --> 00:33:28,619
The way the contradictions
can exist in capital

698
00:33:28,619 --> 00:33:31,439
is that they get spread out in time,

699
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:33,393
they get unfolded in time.

700
00:33:35,791 --> 00:33:38,789
And we will talk about
why exchange comes first.

701
00:33:38,789 --> 00:33:41,430
Again, in a capital system,

702
00:33:41,430 --> 00:33:44,549
commodities are things that
are produced for exchange.

703
00:33:44,549 --> 00:33:48,492
So, before they get
thought of as use values,

704
00:33:48,492 --> 00:33:50,519
no, that's not exactly right.

705
00:33:50,519 --> 00:33:51,839
They're both thought of as use values

706
00:33:51,839 --> 00:33:54,269
and exchange values at the same time.

707
00:33:54,269 --> 00:33:59,009
But exchange is the original
impetus for producing them

708
00:33:59,009 --> 00:34:00,093
in a capital system.

709
00:34:02,460 --> 00:34:03,293
Okay.

710
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:09,420
I think we're doing good.

711
00:34:09,420 --> 00:34:11,342
You are totally confused.

712
00:34:25,170 --> 00:34:29,163
Let's take a look at page 15 to 16.

713
00:34:31,230 --> 00:34:32,063
Here.

714
00:34:34,889 --> 00:34:37,379
At the very bottom of 15, as use values,

715
00:34:37,380 --> 00:34:39,423
commodities differ above all,

716
00:34:40,469 --> 00:34:42,569
with respect to quality.

717
00:34:42,570 --> 00:34:43,830
As exchange values,

718
00:34:43,829 --> 00:34:46,529
they can differ only
with respect to quantity,

719
00:34:46,530 --> 00:34:49,890
and they contain not even
an atom of use value.

720
00:34:49,889 --> 00:34:51,940
That's why these are so peculiar, Samuel.

721
00:34:52,829 --> 00:34:57,829
- It seems that this taking
exchange values to be constant,

722
00:35:00,539 --> 00:35:02,780
which is what he says at the top of that.

723
00:35:02,780 --> 00:35:03,900
And at the bottom,

724
00:35:03,900 --> 00:35:06,166
he said they're for only
relative (indistinct).

725
00:35:08,519 --> 00:35:12,913
Can't an object have exchange
values to each person?

726
00:35:12,913 --> 00:35:16,199
- Not to each person,
but to each commodity.

727
00:35:16,199 --> 00:35:20,699
Exchange values do not have
any relations to people

728
00:35:20,699 --> 00:35:23,489
until they have relations
to other commodities.

729
00:35:23,489 --> 00:35:26,062
- So it could have simultaneously, say,

730
00:35:26,063 --> 00:35:29,070
Saraiya is willing to pay the
victim bananas for an iPhone

731
00:35:29,070 --> 00:35:29,970
and I'm willing to pay,

732
00:35:29,969 --> 00:35:32,699
to exchange 10 bananas for an iPhone.

733
00:35:32,699 --> 00:35:34,500
- Unrelated to what you're willing to pay.

734
00:35:34,500 --> 00:35:39,500
It's only related to what
socially a thing is worth

735
00:35:39,630 --> 00:35:42,093
compared to other commodities.

736
00:35:44,250 --> 00:35:46,920
- We're not talking about price
as we know it around that.

737
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:49,170
- We're not talking about price,

738
00:35:49,170 --> 00:35:52,650
we're talking about value and
the way value gets set up.

739
00:35:52,650 --> 00:35:55,260
The way you know that value
and price are different

740
00:35:55,260 --> 00:36:00,260
is that if something is
trading for above its value,

741
00:36:00,599 --> 00:36:02,489
people invest in that.

742
00:36:02,489 --> 00:36:04,559
And if something is trading
for below its value,

743
00:36:04,559 --> 00:36:06,119
people don't invest in that.

744
00:36:06,119 --> 00:36:09,719
And in fact, those firms
can go out of business

745
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:11,219
because they're not
making back what they need

746
00:36:11,219 --> 00:36:12,899
to make back to cover their costs

747
00:36:12,900 --> 00:36:16,650
and to prepare for the
following year, et cetera.

748
00:36:16,650 --> 00:36:19,083
So, price and value are
absolutely different.

749
00:36:20,730 --> 00:36:22,800
The relationship between value and price

750
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:26,373
is a controversial topic
in Marxian studies.

751
00:36:27,210 --> 00:36:30,960
It goes back to the infamous cliche,

752
00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:33,090
the transformation problem.

753
00:36:33,090 --> 00:36:35,460
And I don't think it's
worth talking about here

754
00:36:35,460 --> 00:36:36,869
because we are interested

755
00:36:36,869 --> 00:36:41,869
in the social outcome of abstraction,

756
00:36:42,630 --> 00:36:44,163
and we have to get there.

757
00:36:46,409 --> 00:36:49,619
For those people who try
to make economics work out

758
00:36:49,619 --> 00:36:51,752
so they can predict what prices will be,

759
00:36:52,980 --> 00:36:55,500
it's a question of the
relation of value to price,

760
00:36:55,500 --> 00:36:57,210
and different economic theories

761
00:36:57,210 --> 00:36:59,159
settle this question in different ways.

762
00:36:59,159 --> 00:37:02,309
And Marx was famously unable to settle it,

763
00:37:02,309 --> 00:37:05,789
but it doesn't touch the basic insight,

764
00:37:05,789 --> 00:37:10,789
which is that exchange value,
value, rules our lives,

765
00:37:12,389 --> 00:37:15,299
determines the quality of our labor,

766
00:37:15,300 --> 00:37:17,910
determines the amount
of leisure time we have,

767
00:37:17,909 --> 00:37:20,192
determines the way we
relate to one another.

768
00:37:24,150 --> 00:37:24,983
Yeah.

769
00:37:24,983 --> 00:37:27,269
- Can you think of price and value

770
00:37:27,269 --> 00:37:30,300
as kind of one of those weird doubles,

771
00:37:30,300 --> 00:37:32,910
where one losing into the other, right?

772
00:37:32,909 --> 00:37:36,059
You question kind of like
why a price is this way

773
00:37:36,059 --> 00:37:38,639
and that's the phenomenology of it.

774
00:37:38,639 --> 00:37:39,789
And then, (indistinct).

775
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:43,170
- There's a lot to be said about price.

776
00:37:43,170 --> 00:37:44,460
Maybe we set aside,

777
00:37:44,460 --> 00:37:46,740
once we understand these
things down the line,

778
00:37:46,739 --> 00:37:49,049
half of a session to talk about price.

779
00:37:49,050 --> 00:37:52,140
It's worth thinking about Adam Smith

780
00:37:52,139 --> 00:37:54,929
and David Ricardo who
thought about this a lot.

781
00:37:54,929 --> 00:37:56,250
And they also recognized

782
00:37:56,250 --> 00:37:59,880
that one thing that's
characteristic of prices,

783
00:37:59,880 --> 00:38:01,200
which is not characteristic of value,

784
00:38:01,199 --> 00:38:06,199
is that they fluctuate wildly
day to day, minute to minute.

785
00:38:07,769 --> 00:38:09,690
But they fluctuate around a center,

786
00:38:09,690 --> 00:38:13,679
Smith called this a natural
price, around a center,

787
00:38:13,679 --> 00:38:15,929
which is thought to be
something like the value

788
00:38:15,929 --> 00:38:17,879
is not gonna get too crazy.

789
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:22,470
Like, you will never have an
iPhone selling for 25 cents.

790
00:38:22,469 --> 00:38:25,469
And you can see when
you compare commodities,

791
00:38:25,469 --> 00:38:27,299
that value is real.

792
00:38:27,300 --> 00:38:29,280
You see, you might have a
banana selling for 25 cents,

793
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:31,800
you'll never have it selling for $1,000,

794
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:33,573
unless things go really haywire.

795
00:38:35,219 --> 00:38:37,230
And the opposite is also true.

796
00:38:37,230 --> 00:38:41,519
You'll never trade a banana for an iPhone.

797
00:38:41,519 --> 00:38:43,050
Yeah.

798
00:38:43,050 --> 00:38:46,470
- So, you said that use value
strictly relates to quality.

799
00:38:46,469 --> 00:38:49,139
Is it the quality of the total actions

800
00:38:49,139 --> 00:38:51,472
that encourage people
to use that commodity?

801
00:38:53,099 --> 00:38:54,719
- Let's look at the sentence again.

802
00:38:54,719 --> 00:38:57,089
I love it when we do philological work.

803
00:38:57,090 --> 00:38:58,200
As use values,

804
00:38:58,199 --> 00:39:01,379
commodities differ above
all with respect to quality,

805
00:39:01,380 --> 00:39:04,050
that is in their qualities.

806
00:39:04,050 --> 00:39:05,789
So that as a banana is peelable

807
00:39:05,789 --> 00:39:09,452
and an iPhone is not peelable, et cetera.

808
00:39:11,250 --> 00:39:12,510
A banana is nutritious,

809
00:39:12,510 --> 00:39:14,370
and this is what Marx is thinking of.

810
00:39:14,369 --> 00:39:18,000
In one sense, he has a kind
of Spinozistic ontology.

811
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,010
Things have qualities.

812
00:39:20,010 --> 00:39:20,843
Yeah.

813
00:39:20,842 --> 00:39:25,842
- So there's a lot of different
value terms going around.

814
00:39:26,070 --> 00:39:27,539
And sometimes,

815
00:39:27,539 --> 00:39:30,989
I'll hear you talk about, say,
exchange value or use value,

816
00:39:30,989 --> 00:39:33,719
and then you'll just dive into the topic

817
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:35,730
with the shorthand of value.

818
00:39:35,730 --> 00:39:37,170
Just for my comprehension going-

819
00:39:37,170 --> 00:39:39,599
- Oh, yeah.
- Or whenever you say value,

820
00:39:39,599 --> 00:39:41,190
maybe with a capital V,

821
00:39:41,190 --> 00:39:44,340
are you talking about that sort of value

822
00:39:44,340 --> 00:39:46,623
that's derived from abstract labor?

823
00:39:53,250 --> 00:39:55,110
- Use value, you understand it,

824
00:39:55,110 --> 00:39:58,713
is something that corresponds
to your wants and needs.

825
00:40:00,300 --> 00:40:02,490
Exchange value, you understand it,

826
00:40:02,489 --> 00:40:06,089
is how much you can get for your thing,

827
00:40:06,090 --> 00:40:08,190
how much you can get by exchanging it.

828
00:40:08,190 --> 00:40:10,862
So, he uses coats and linen.

829
00:40:10,862 --> 00:40:15,119
It's 19th century, it's
Germany or he was in London.

830
00:40:15,119 --> 00:40:17,519
It's cold, you need a coat.

831
00:40:17,519 --> 00:40:19,380
The coats are not made of linen.

832
00:40:19,380 --> 00:40:21,570
For a long time, I was confused by that.

833
00:40:21,570 --> 00:40:24,150
Coats are wool, the linen
is a separate thing.

834
00:40:24,150 --> 00:40:26,610
It's like we have these
things that are different,

835
00:40:26,610 --> 00:40:27,870
and he is very clear.

836
00:40:27,869 --> 00:40:29,579
You can't exchange linen for linen.

837
00:40:29,579 --> 00:40:31,590
The same amount of linen for
the same amount of linen.

838
00:40:31,590 --> 00:40:33,930
This is how you know
there's something like value

839
00:40:34,769 --> 00:40:36,849
and how it's parasitic on use value

840
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:39,780
because you already have the linen.

841
00:40:39,780 --> 00:40:42,630
If you have it, you don't
need it unless you need more.

842
00:40:42,630 --> 00:40:45,510
But then you'd have to
exchange something else, right?

843
00:40:45,510 --> 00:40:47,850
There is no market of exchanging
the same for the same.

844
00:40:47,849 --> 00:40:50,250
You need to exchange things
with different qualities.

845
00:40:50,250 --> 00:40:51,083
One second.

846
00:40:52,380 --> 00:40:56,670
So, use value as a kind of
basis is a sufficient...

847
00:40:56,670 --> 00:40:58,713
Is a necessary, but not sufficient,

848
00:41:00,150 --> 00:41:01,769
characteristic of a commodity.

849
00:41:01,769 --> 00:41:03,300
It must have the use value

850
00:41:03,300 --> 00:41:05,100
'cause no one will buy it otherwise.

851
00:41:05,099 --> 00:41:06,659
But when it comes to exchanging,

852
00:41:06,659 --> 00:41:10,502
it only matters how much it
exchanges for of another thing.

853
00:41:12,539 --> 00:41:16,293
Out of these two comes a phantom.

854
00:41:21,630 --> 00:41:24,420
Because when you exchange
it for something else,

855
00:41:24,420 --> 00:41:27,300
you think it has this
thing intrinsic to it

856
00:41:27,300 --> 00:41:28,323
that is of value.

857
00:41:29,639 --> 00:41:31,559
The value appears in the thing

858
00:41:31,559 --> 00:41:33,539
as something it seems to carry with it

859
00:41:33,539 --> 00:41:36,269
and have with it everywhere it goes.

860
00:41:36,269 --> 00:41:38,190
So, value as a product

861
00:41:38,190 --> 00:41:41,943
is the unity of exchange
value and use value.

862
00:41:43,619 --> 00:41:47,489
You say that is worth X, Y, and Z

863
00:41:47,489 --> 00:41:50,792
because it has this ghostly
quality that adheres to it.

864
00:41:53,429 --> 00:41:55,440
You could say, if you want,

865
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,320
that this is the antithesis
and this is the synthesis,

866
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,010
but Marx is not so clear about that, okay?

867
00:42:02,010 --> 00:42:04,290
He will not talk about exchange value

868
00:42:04,289 --> 00:42:06,960
as a separate and
interesting thing after this.

869
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:09,900
He's just gonna talk
about use value and value

870
00:42:09,900 --> 00:42:13,773
because it's value that will
end up making capital work.

871
00:42:15,690 --> 00:42:17,420
Value is...

872
00:42:19,769 --> 00:42:23,670
based in use value and
realized in exchange value,

873
00:42:23,670 --> 00:42:26,070
and it looks like an independent thing

874
00:42:26,070 --> 00:42:28,500
that you could trade on a market.

875
00:42:28,500 --> 00:42:33,389
And it comes to be represented
through one of the processes,

876
00:42:33,389 --> 00:42:36,842
representation, or expression
of capital in what form?

877
00:42:40,619 --> 00:42:43,889
Value is represented
independently as money.

878
00:42:43,889 --> 00:42:46,230
It's as though you took
it out of the thing

879
00:42:46,230 --> 00:42:48,030
and value started living on its own.

880
00:42:49,050 --> 00:42:50,370
And I said, "I'll give you this money,

881
00:42:50,369 --> 00:42:52,710
which is equal in value
to what you're having

882
00:42:52,710 --> 00:42:55,559
because that thing has
intrinsically, in it, value."

883
00:42:55,559 --> 00:42:56,610
Does that make sense?

884
00:42:58,860 --> 00:43:01,053
- There were some questions.

885
00:43:03,329 --> 00:43:04,163
- Yeah.

886
00:43:04,163 --> 00:43:05,206
- So this value,

887
00:43:05,206 --> 00:43:08,789
because I think you
mentioned that this so thing

888
00:43:08,789 --> 00:43:10,067
of you starting it...

889
00:43:10,067 --> 00:43:12,567
(indistinct)

890
00:43:15,420 --> 00:43:16,950
- Ultimately, we'll talk about value,

891
00:43:16,949 --> 00:43:19,169
but this is the genesis of value.

892
00:43:19,170 --> 00:43:22,530
You have something that's
useful, socially useful.

893
00:43:22,530 --> 00:43:24,960
People use it in our culture, right?

894
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:27,389
Something that's totally outside

895
00:43:27,389 --> 00:43:30,210
of what other people recognize as useful

896
00:43:30,210 --> 00:43:32,130
might be useful to you individually,

897
00:43:32,130 --> 00:43:33,730
but it doesn't have a use value.

898
00:43:35,130 --> 00:43:36,599
And you have exchange value,

899
00:43:36,599 --> 00:43:40,599
which is what you get for it on a market

900
00:43:42,030 --> 00:43:43,533
related to an equivalent.

901
00:43:44,489 --> 00:43:46,919
And these two together

902
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,190
make it seem as though
there's this special substance

903
00:43:50,190 --> 00:43:52,409
that adheres to all commodities,

904
00:43:52,409 --> 00:43:54,092
just in different quantities.

905
00:43:57,449 --> 00:44:01,230
And it's not purely
psychological, it is ontological.

906
00:44:01,230 --> 00:44:04,800
You live in a world as
though this was real.

907
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:05,972
And so it's real.

908
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:08,673
Value is real under capital.

909
00:44:10,829 --> 00:44:12,929
As I say, give away all your things,

910
00:44:12,929 --> 00:44:14,129
and you'll just have no things.

911
00:44:14,130 --> 00:44:15,900
But value will go on happily.

912
00:44:15,900 --> 00:44:17,940
And if you wanna get them back,

913
00:44:17,940 --> 00:44:20,139
you'll have to concede
the reality of value.

914
00:44:23,909 --> 00:44:25,559
Okay.

915
00:44:25,559 --> 00:44:27,869
Wow, you're really pushing me.

916
00:44:27,869 --> 00:44:28,712
This is good.

917
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:31,230
What else do we need to talk about?

918
00:44:31,230 --> 00:44:33,119
We need to talk about the
double character of labor.

919
00:44:33,119 --> 00:44:33,952
So,

920
00:44:35,940 --> 00:44:38,970
actually, a commodity has
this double character,

921
00:44:38,969 --> 00:44:40,442
use value and value,

922
00:44:46,349 --> 00:44:47,779
and labor has a double...

923
00:44:49,679 --> 00:44:51,062
double character, too.

924
00:44:59,639 --> 00:45:02,279
Useful labor makes useful things.

925
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,733
That is a qualitative act that
requires skill and knowledge.

926
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:09,273
As machines tape go over that,

927
00:45:10,380 --> 00:45:12,543
you can put less skill into it,

928
00:45:14,579 --> 00:45:17,072
but nonetheless it requires some skill.

929
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:21,600
From the perspective of a useful object,

930
00:45:21,599 --> 00:45:23,612
labor is useful labor.

931
00:45:24,780 --> 00:45:25,613
So, the question is:

932
00:45:25,612 --> 00:45:29,699
What is labor from the
perspective of value?

933
00:45:29,699 --> 00:45:32,429
It is a bare gelatinous blob.

934
00:45:32,429 --> 00:45:34,019
Don't you love this translation?

935
00:45:34,019 --> 00:45:37,380
It's a translation by
a writer whom I admire

936
00:45:37,380 --> 00:45:39,630
of a German word gallerte,

937
00:45:39,630 --> 00:45:41,579
which is something like sue it.

938
00:45:41,579 --> 00:45:43,739
It's when you took
everything that was left over

939
00:45:43,739 --> 00:45:46,142
and you boiled it down
into a gelatinous blob.

940
00:45:48,059 --> 00:45:49,529
We thought of using sue it,

941
00:45:49,530 --> 00:45:52,320
but we didn't think anyone
would know really what that was.

942
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:54,180
So we put a bare gelatinous blob.

943
00:45:54,179 --> 00:45:55,829
It's everything kind of mixed together

944
00:45:55,829 --> 00:45:59,759
until all of its qualitative
characteristics disappear

945
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:02,060
and you just have a kind
of quantity of stuff.

946
00:46:03,210 --> 00:46:06,119
That's the second characteristic of labor,

947
00:46:06,119 --> 00:46:07,742
which he calls abstract labor.

948
00:46:09,630 --> 00:46:11,890
So you have concrete labor

949
00:46:14,489 --> 00:46:16,052
and abstract labor.

950
00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:20,639
Clearly, abstract labor makes value

951
00:46:20,639 --> 00:46:22,772
and concrete labor makes use values.

952
00:46:25,980 --> 00:46:27,152
In capital,

953
00:46:31,289 --> 00:46:36,289
these get inverted so that
you do concrete labor,

954
00:46:37,590 --> 00:46:39,360
so that you can get abstract labor

955
00:46:39,360 --> 00:46:40,829
and you'd make useful things,

956
00:46:40,829 --> 00:46:42,630
so that you can get value out of it.

957
00:46:45,599 --> 00:46:46,697
I'm jumping ahead.

958
00:46:46,697 --> 00:46:49,143
That's like the climax
of the first project.

959
00:46:50,369 --> 00:46:52,980
We will go from commodity production

960
00:46:52,980 --> 00:46:56,909
or production of products
to production of value.

961
00:46:56,909 --> 00:46:59,109
Commodity production
to production of value.

962
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:04,289
You don't get the second type of labor

963
00:47:04,289 --> 00:47:07,829
from concrete differentiated labor.

964
00:47:07,829 --> 00:47:10,559
If you look at the world of useful things,

965
00:47:10,559 --> 00:47:12,690
you see all these different qualities.

966
00:47:12,690 --> 00:47:15,090
They're edible, they're
sweet, they're sour,

967
00:47:15,090 --> 00:47:18,750
they're tools to make other
things, they're entertainment.

968
00:47:18,750 --> 00:47:21,179
Whatever it does for you, it does for you.

969
00:47:21,179 --> 00:47:22,949
The same thing with the
labor that goes into it,

970
00:47:22,949 --> 00:47:25,379
it's absolutely an infinite,

971
00:47:25,380 --> 00:47:28,110
potentially infinitely differentiated.

972
00:47:28,110 --> 00:47:30,960
That's why if someone plays the trumpet

973
00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:32,190
and I play the guitar,

974
00:47:32,190 --> 00:47:34,050
that doesn't mean I can play the trumpet

975
00:47:34,050 --> 00:47:34,950
and they can play the guitar.

976
00:47:34,949 --> 00:47:36,210
Although musicians are pretty good

977
00:47:36,210 --> 00:47:38,400
at different things like that, right?

978
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:39,930
But this divides us as people.

979
00:47:39,929 --> 00:47:43,112
So we have a social division
of labor, as Marx calls it.

980
00:47:44,039 --> 00:47:48,449
But when it comes down to the
labor that makes up value,

981
00:47:48,449 --> 00:47:51,599
it is undifferentiated, homogenized,

982
00:47:51,599 --> 00:47:54,480
reduced to one particular quality,

983
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:57,182
which is, according to Marx,
how long it took to do.

984
00:47:58,530 --> 00:48:01,170
How long it took to do
according to the average

985
00:48:01,170 --> 00:48:04,233
that it takes to do that in the society.

986
00:48:08,340 --> 00:48:10,769
Okay, let's say a couple of other things.

987
00:48:10,769 --> 00:48:12,329
We need like a four-hour lecture,

988
00:48:12,329 --> 00:48:14,762
but you're probably happy
you don't have that.

989
00:48:16,619 --> 00:48:21,619
Let's talk about socially
necessary average labor time.

990
00:48:22,679 --> 00:48:24,719
Socially necessary average labor time

991
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:27,209
is what distinguishes
Marxist theory of value

992
00:48:27,210 --> 00:48:30,572
from Ricardo's theory of value
or Smith's theory of value.

993
00:48:32,099 --> 00:48:34,980
Value is not just what
the worker put into it

994
00:48:34,980 --> 00:48:39,063
in producing a useful product.

995
00:48:40,590 --> 00:48:44,700
Value goes through this
homogenizing process,

996
00:48:44,699 --> 00:48:49,699
and you can tell the magnitude of value

997
00:48:50,340 --> 00:48:53,563
by the socially necessary
average labor time

998
00:48:53,563 --> 00:48:55,619
that went into it.

999
00:48:55,619 --> 00:48:59,069
Because labor goes through
its homogenizing process, too.

1000
00:48:59,070 --> 00:49:00,150
And you are being compared

1001
00:49:00,150 --> 00:49:02,639
to everyone else on the labor market,

1002
00:49:02,639 --> 00:49:04,686
so that when you go to
work, they don't say,

1003
00:49:04,686 --> 00:49:07,500
"Take your time, you do it in five days.

1004
00:49:07,500 --> 00:49:09,780
Do it in five days."

1005
00:49:09,780 --> 00:49:12,930
No, they say, "Well, the
average for this is two hours,

1006
00:49:12,929 --> 00:49:14,219
so you've got two hours to do this."

1007
00:49:14,219 --> 00:49:15,989
If not, (Paul mimicking air whooshing)

1008
00:49:15,989 --> 00:49:16,822
you're out.

1009
00:49:17,789 --> 00:49:19,380
Right?

1010
00:49:19,380 --> 00:49:21,599
This is the way it
works 'cause if one firm

1011
00:49:21,599 --> 00:49:24,119
is working much more
slowly than another firm,

1012
00:49:24,119 --> 00:49:25,420
they won't last very long.

1013
00:49:26,460 --> 00:49:28,889
Here is where competitive
pressures come in.

1014
00:49:28,889 --> 00:49:31,319
You don't actually get those
very much in this volume.

1015
00:49:31,320 --> 00:49:33,539
You get them much more in Volume 3.

1016
00:49:33,539 --> 00:49:34,650
But you have to keep in mind

1017
00:49:34,650 --> 00:49:36,150
that we're looking for the whole system.

1018
00:49:36,150 --> 00:49:38,019
So ultimately, competitive pressures

1019
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:41,910
push these things in a
particular direction.

1020
00:49:41,909 --> 00:49:44,309
We'll see this a bit later in this book.

1021
00:49:44,309 --> 00:49:46,289
Socially necessary labor time.

1022
00:49:46,289 --> 00:49:48,900
The labor time necessary in this society

1023
00:49:48,900 --> 00:49:50,160
to make a certain thing.

1024
00:49:50,159 --> 00:49:53,279
Marx is gonna use the prefix social a lot.

1025
00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:54,810
What does social mean?

1026
00:49:54,809 --> 00:49:59,809
It has three opposites:
natural, individual, and ideal.

1027
00:50:01,530 --> 00:50:02,363
In this way,

1028
00:50:02,362 --> 00:50:06,089
he gets rid of a kind of
by a logistic anthropology.

1029
00:50:06,090 --> 00:50:09,900
He gets rid of the Hegelian

1030
00:50:09,900 --> 00:50:12,900
or liberal concentration on an individual,

1031
00:50:12,900 --> 00:50:15,510
and he gets rid of German idealism.

1032
00:50:15,510 --> 00:50:17,580
Social is not natural.

1033
00:50:17,579 --> 00:50:19,682
It means something that was made,

1034
00:50:21,389 --> 00:50:25,109
something historically
specific to a given society

1035
00:50:25,110 --> 00:50:26,460
to a certain way of living,

1036
00:50:27,329 --> 00:50:29,639
which has institutions,

1037
00:50:29,639 --> 00:50:31,650
although he will say often

1038
00:50:31,650 --> 00:50:35,280
that the social is
natural for human beings.

1039
00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:36,269
Don't be confused.

1040
00:50:36,269 --> 00:50:38,369
The social is quite different than nature.

1041
00:50:38,369 --> 00:50:42,179
Although Marx understood that
nature had its own history,

1042
00:50:42,179 --> 00:50:45,179
at that time, he read
the "Origin of Species"

1043
00:50:45,179 --> 00:50:47,552
and was really keen about it.

1044
00:50:49,679 --> 00:50:52,710
The social is its own category.

1045
00:50:52,710 --> 00:50:54,840
It also means not individual,

1046
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:58,660
that is, it's something that
applies to the whole society

1047
00:51:00,389 --> 00:51:03,842
and emerges from the
interactions of individuals,

1048
00:51:06,539 --> 00:51:08,730
the individuals in the largest collective

1049
00:51:08,730 --> 00:51:10,262
that shares a way of living.

1050
00:51:11,099 --> 00:51:13,440
And social is also not ideal,

1051
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:16,320
that is to say it's not a prescription

1052
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:19,559
or a description of some abstract truth,

1053
00:51:19,559 --> 00:51:21,422
but a set of practices.

1054
00:51:23,010 --> 00:51:25,230
Practices that make sense for a group

1055
00:51:25,230 --> 00:51:26,612
under certain pressures.

1056
00:51:28,110 --> 00:51:30,903
A group whose members are
completely interdependent,

1057
00:51:33,809 --> 00:51:37,349
for whom an individual is a falsification

1058
00:51:37,349 --> 00:51:39,449
of their real way of living

1059
00:51:39,449 --> 00:51:43,029
because they collaborate on everything

1060
00:51:43,889 --> 00:51:45,289
through a division of labor.

1061
00:51:47,309 --> 00:51:49,199
Social or societal names,

1062
00:51:49,199 --> 00:51:51,599
the interdependent group
that cannot be reduced

1063
00:51:51,599 --> 00:51:53,369
to an individual free will,

1064
00:51:53,369 --> 00:51:57,179
to individual inclinations,
or individual drives.

1065
00:51:57,179 --> 00:51:58,859
So, the social is a ground zero

1066
00:51:58,860 --> 00:52:00,360
for all of Marx's reflection.

1067
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:02,849
That's what makes him useful

1068
00:52:02,849 --> 00:52:05,460
and the course is called
Foundations of Social Thought.

1069
00:52:05,460 --> 00:52:06,293
Yeah, Samuel.

1070
00:52:08,250 --> 00:52:10,980
- Yeah, Marx is living in a Kingdom.

1071
00:52:10,980 --> 00:52:12,610
They are true, right?

1072
00:52:12,610 --> 00:52:13,950
Like, living in pressure,
right, which he was-

1073
00:52:13,949 --> 00:52:16,500
- Well, he is living
in London at this time.

1074
00:52:16,500 --> 00:52:18,929
- But he dropped in
(indistinct), which is a kingdom.

1075
00:52:18,929 --> 00:52:22,739
And arguably, a lot of societal pressures

1076
00:52:22,739 --> 00:52:26,099
are coming from the whims of
the leader of that society.

1077
00:52:26,099 --> 00:52:27,389
But how do we work that?

1078
00:52:28,853 --> 00:52:33,000
- Well, he is not talking
about political forms

1079
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:34,019
or government.

1080
00:52:34,019 --> 00:52:36,250
He is talking about the way people

1081
00:52:37,409 --> 00:52:41,019
have to collaborate on their social life

1082
00:52:42,378 --> 00:52:44,940
to make their means of subsistence,

1083
00:52:44,940 --> 00:52:46,950
which he saw as quite independent

1084
00:52:46,949 --> 00:52:49,619
of the whims of the Prussian leaders,

1085
00:52:49,619 --> 00:52:52,083
although they could infringe on it.

1086
00:52:53,159 --> 00:52:56,009
But people tended to do that on their own,

1087
00:52:56,010 --> 00:52:57,960
they could benefit from it,

1088
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:00,780
but the people tended to
do that on their own, yeah.

1089
00:53:00,780 --> 00:53:02,640
- What is he describing as society?

1090
00:53:02,639 --> 00:53:07,529
Is it particularly London
Revolution or IWA Society?

1091
00:53:07,530 --> 00:53:09,269
- Capitalist Society.

1092
00:53:09,269 --> 00:53:13,112
Society under the domination of capital.

1093
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:19,289
Okay, we're coming up
to the end of our time.

1094
00:53:19,289 --> 00:53:21,719
Let me see if there's any questions.

1095
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:24,669
We're crawling along, but it's
gonna get faster, I promise.

1096
00:53:29,264 --> 00:53:31,440
(indistinct)

1097
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:34,831
- So, capitalism is
neither a political system

1098
00:53:34,831 --> 00:53:38,427
nor (indistinct) for a social sector?

1099
00:53:38,427 --> 00:53:41,343
And the key, does he need practical?

1100
00:53:42,300 --> 00:53:44,940
- Oh, yeah, the last chapter
is about colonialism.

1101
00:53:44,940 --> 00:53:46,769
Uh-huh, he links it to colonialism

1102
00:53:46,769 --> 00:53:51,769
and the types of colonial-type
activities in Europe

1103
00:53:53,489 --> 00:53:56,009
in which people were
dispossessed of their land

1104
00:53:56,010 --> 00:53:57,993
and forced into factories.

1105
00:54:00,119 --> 00:54:00,952
Yeah.

1106
00:54:02,429 --> 00:54:03,262
Very loud.

1107
00:54:03,262 --> 00:54:04,096
- This might be too big a question to ask,

1108
00:54:04,096 --> 00:54:05,519
and we're at the end,

1109
00:54:05,519 --> 00:54:09,840
but how much of the rest
of Marx's economic analysis

1110
00:54:09,840 --> 00:54:13,200
depends on his labor theory of value?

1111
00:54:13,199 --> 00:54:15,899
- He does not have a
labor theory of value.

1112
00:54:15,900 --> 00:54:18,030
He has an abstraction theory of value

1113
00:54:18,030 --> 00:54:22,983
or something people have
called a value theory of labor.

1114
00:54:24,510 --> 00:54:25,650
I think it's a good turn

1115
00:54:25,650 --> 00:54:26,940
because he's really interested

1116
00:54:26,940 --> 00:54:31,829
in what being forced to produce
value first does to labor.

1117
00:54:31,829 --> 00:54:33,000
He is not interested

1118
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:37,079
in working out how we can
get the most out of a market.

1119
00:54:37,079 --> 00:54:38,699
And so his goal is very different

1120
00:54:38,699 --> 00:54:42,509
than mainstream economists.

1121
00:54:42,510 --> 00:54:44,430
But, we can talk more about that.

1122
00:54:44,429 --> 00:54:47,882
It's the last minute where a
bone of contention has come up.

1123
00:54:48,900 --> 00:54:51,930
Other questions before we cut?

1124
00:54:51,929 --> 00:54:52,762
Yeah.

1125
00:54:52,762 --> 00:54:57,599
- (indistinct) together, like
exchange value, used value,

1126
00:54:57,599 --> 00:55:00,152
and how value is
determined by (indistinct)?

1127
00:55:04,016 --> 00:55:06,419
- The only thing about value
that's determined by...

1128
00:55:06,420 --> 00:55:09,389
Value is determined by exchange,

1129
00:55:09,389 --> 00:55:13,259
and its magnitude is determined
by the abstraction of labor

1130
00:55:13,260 --> 00:55:16,170
such that those things become comparable.

1131
00:55:16,170 --> 00:55:17,760
It's complicated.

1132
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:19,140
He says, "When you take all these things

1133
00:55:19,139 --> 00:55:22,859
of totally different
qualitative characteristics

1134
00:55:22,860 --> 00:55:24,329
that are used for totally different things

1135
00:55:24,329 --> 00:55:25,319
by different people,

1136
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:29,430
incidentally, not everyone
wants a hammer, right?"

1137
00:55:29,429 --> 00:55:31,049
We are not philosophizing with a hammer,

1138
00:55:31,050 --> 00:55:33,123
we're philosophizing with a MacBook.

1139
00:55:37,230 --> 00:55:39,599
How do they become comparable?

1140
00:55:39,599 --> 00:55:42,480
They become comparable through exchange.

1141
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:44,159
Where do they get their magnitude?

1142
00:55:44,159 --> 00:55:45,210
They get their magnitude

1143
00:55:45,210 --> 00:55:48,090
from the socially necessary
average labor time used in them

1144
00:55:48,090 --> 00:55:49,320
because that's the only thing

1145
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:52,380
that differentiates different commodities

1146
00:55:52,380 --> 00:55:53,789
in their magnitude of value.

1147
00:55:53,789 --> 00:55:55,409
Says Marx.

1148
00:55:55,409 --> 00:55:58,349
Not the only way to look at
it, but it's fairly logical.

1149
00:55:58,349 --> 00:56:01,199
The only thing that's
different between a banana,

1150
00:56:01,199 --> 00:56:03,029
aside from its qualitative
characteristics,

1151
00:56:03,030 --> 00:56:07,215
and an iPhone is how much
average labor it takes

1152
00:56:07,215 --> 00:56:09,000
to go into it.

1153
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:10,050
Does that make sense?

1154
00:56:11,550 --> 00:56:12,423
For Marx.

1155
00:56:14,190 --> 00:56:15,090
See you next time.

1156
00:56:16,360 --> 00:56:19,277
(uplifting music)