Soc 0150
Notes for Jan. 24
Recorded by Ebony Gardner
Commodity Fetishism (CF)
Fetish- something you really like a lot, non-erotic arousal, takes some explaining as to
why you may like it.
~Dictionary definition-material object believed to have magical power or an object of
unreasonable excessive attention~
Fetish commodity is when they realize exchange value over value itself, thus CF obscures
social relations of production. There is a misplacement of power on to an object that
doesn’t merit it.
The point Marx raises is you have to be critical social theorist to de-fetish
Dialectical Materialism (ideology)
Materialism – analysis of social relations and categories with a material basis. On pg 57
starting with “The religious….” is a materialist claim
Ideology: notion of where ideas come from
Materialist (opposite is idealist) is a concept
Epistemology: a theory of how we know what we know
Dialectical – Identifying contradictions
Pg 82-83 Political tools into Proletariat
Pg 80 contradiction in way class is developed (Proposition)
Thesis -----------------Antithesis
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Synthesis
Ex.
The Thesis is Development of bourgeois
The antithesis is development of proletariat
The Synthesis is revolution of proletariat
Ex2.
The Thesis is Development of means of production
The antithesis is development of social relations of proletariat (alienation)
