From: Hans G. Ehrbar (ehrbar@LISTS.ECON.UTAH.EDU)
Date: Wed Feb 16 2005 - 11:51:21 EST
Howard, we both agree that value is unobservable and causally effective, just as many other social relations are at the same time unobservable and causally effective. Apologies for my obscure sentence with the words "per se" in it. Let me try again. You had written: > Notice that value is an unobservable -- it does not, > cannot appear. Therefore it is manifested by means of > forms of appearance (exchange value, money). I disagree with the word "therefore" in this passage. The fact that value is unobservable does, by itself, not yet create the necessity for it to take a form of appearance. Many social relations are very effective even if they do not have a form of appearance. For instance, lovers do not need a wedding ring in order to know what to do with each other. It is different with value relations: they can only take effect if they have a form of appearance, because they are not direct relations between the producers but go through the market, i.e., through objects. Hans.
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