Read:
- Capital, Chapter 1 – Commodities
- Capital, Chapter 2 – Exchange
Watch:
- David Harvey – Reading Marx’s Capital Vol 1: Class 1 – Introduction
- David Harvey – Reading Marx”s Capital Vol 1: Class 2 – Chapters 1-2
Optional Reading:
- PolyluxMarx: A Capital Workbook – p. 21-78
- David Harvey, A Companion to Marx”s Capital, Preface – Chapter 1
Study Questions:
Some questions below are borrowed from the Marxists Internet Archive
- What is the difference between use-value, exchange-value, and value?
- Why is use-value not a valid determinant of value?
- Why is labor the basis of value?
- What is the difference between abstract human labor and concrete labor?
- Does advertising add value to the products it advertises?
- What does Marx mention as the reason for needing a universal equivalent and what does it mean when he says “the problem and the means of solution arise simultaneously”?
- How does Marx describe the process of gold (or other precious metals) becoming money?
- If money is a commodity, what its use-value and what is its exchange-value?
- Define the “fetishism of commodities”.
- Why does Marx state that Aristotle was unable to discover the labor theory of value?