Appearance and Reality: Some Ontological Issues

Desmond McNeill ()
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Desmond McNeill: University of Oslo

Chapter 7 in Fetishism and the Theory of Value, 2021, pp 109-126 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In this chapter, I take up the question that I briefly raised in Chap. 5 regarding the ontological status of value. Marx emphasises that value is not a natural but a social phenomenon. Social phenomena can be said to exist and indeed to be causally effective; but only by virtue of people’s shared beliefs. Here, the concept of fetishism is illuminating. To the native of West Africa, the fetish has real power; as Marx wrote in his doctoral thesis: “did not the ancient Moloch reign?”

Keywords: Marx; Ontology; Value; Social relations; Labour; Form of value; Alienation; Lukes; Lukacs; Elster; Cohen; Rubin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:pshchp:978-3-030-56123-9_7

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-56123-9_7

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