From: Michael Eldred (artefact@T-ONLINE.DE)
Date: Wed Dec 13 2006 - 07:01:44 EST
Cologne 13-Dec-2006 In Fortune magazine Vol.164 no.11 from 11-Dec-2006 we read, "'Diamonds are essentially worth nothing,' says Mordechai Rapaport, whose Rapaport Group price list is the industry standard. It's all about what they signify, he explains: In the case of a wedding ring, it's the guy, not the one-carat diamond." Here "natural consciousness" (Hegel PhdG) or "everydayness" (Heidegger SuZ) is speaking with wonderful simplicity an ontically correct fact, without realizing that it is simultaneously speaking an ontological truth of the being of value. "Diamonds are essentially worth nothing" means that _in themselves_ diamonds are worth nothing. They have no inherent worth. They are worthless, nothing -- just like anything or anyone else is worthless in themselves. Why? Because value, worth is in essence a "determination of reflexion" (Reflexionsbestimmung, Hegel, Logik), a mirror relation and a mirror play. In the first chapter of Capital Vol. I, Marx speaks of the one commodity being the "value-mirror" (Wertspiegel) of the other. Ultimately, this role of value-mirror is assumed by money. Value itself has no substance (in labour or anything else). It is essentially a mirror play that comes about in the play among things and among people. It's who the guy is, his whoness as who-status, that is reflected in the glittering one-carat diamond. The diamond and the guy serve each other to reflect each other's value in a mirror relationship that reflects also upon the new wife. Her value, too, is reflected in the diamond, and mediated through the sparkling diamond, the newly married couple reflects each other's value, i.e. their estimation of and for each other, in a groundless mirror-play: the Werspeigelspiel, who-mirror-play. Memo to future generations: Forget Heidegger's Technik-thinking if you're looking for any phenomenological-ontological insight into value. _-_-_-_-_-_-_- artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_- artefact@t-online.de _-_ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_- _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ _______________________________________________ heidegger mailing list heidegger@soca.ecu.edu.au http://www.soca.ecu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/heidegger http://heidegger.an-archos.com/
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