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

1. What is the difference between use-value, exchange-value, and value?
2. Why is use-value not a valid determinant of value?
3. Why is labor the basis of value?
4. What is the difference between abstract human labor and concrete labor?
5. Does advertising add value to the products it advertises?
6. 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”?
7. How does Marx describe the process of gold (or other precious metals) becoming money?
8. If money is a commodity, what its use-value and what is its exchange-value?
9. Define the “fetishism of commodities”.
10. Why does Marx state that Aristotle was unable to discover the labor theory of value?