Re: [OPE] intermission: value of knowledge

Yes, broadly I agree with Paul A on this, especially his point that
knowledge resources are impossible to value 'because they are not used up by
being used'. Knowledge, then, is not alienable, and therefore IMO not a
commodity.

The special legal category of 'intellectual property' should alert us that
there is something different about knowledge - the factory worker does not
have any property rights over the commodities he makes; the factory owner
does not have any property rights over the future use of the commodities he
sells.

Another funny thing about knowledge is that the consumer often plays an
active role in its production. For example, the reader brings his own
interpretation and experiences to his reading, hence the reader also
'produces' the novel. This is not a trait of value, but of use-value (the
use-value of a car, say, depends not only on the useful labor embodied in it
but also on how and why you want to drive it).

Paula

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Received on Wed Nov 11 19:47:28 2009