Rediscovering Use Value

2021 ◽  
pp. 119-134
Author(s):  
Christoph Hermann
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Marginal Utility ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
Economic Thinking ◽  
Individual Value

This chapter rediscovers use value as an essential category for understanding commodification and capitalism more generally. The distinction between use value and exchange value goes back to ancient Greek philosophy and it played an important role in classical political economy. However, with the invention of marginal utility in the late nineteenth century, use value moved from the center to the fringes of economic thinking. Even where it survived, such as in Marxist scholarship, there was considerable disagreement about the role of use value in a critical political economy. The chapter, furthermore, explores the value of nature and by doing so unveils the shortcomings of the concept of marginal utility. One problem is that marginal utility denies the existence of collective value. Following Polanyi, the chapter argues that products not only have individual value, but also have a social and ecological utility. And social and ecological utility can differ considerably from individual valuation.

scholarly journals EMOTION AS A FEATURE OF ARISTOTELIAN EUDAIMONIA AND AFRICAN COMMUNITARIANISM

Phronimon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-61
Author(s):  
Bernard Matolino
Keyword(s):  
African Philosophy ◽  
Interesting Aspect ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
Emotional Basis

Taking it to be the case that there are reasonable grounds to compare African communitarianism and Aristotle’s eudaimonia, or any aspect of African philosophy with some ancient Greek philosophy,1;2 I suggest that it is worthwhile to revisit an interesting aspect of interpreting Aristotelian virtue and how that sort of interpretation may rehabilitate the role of emotion in African communitarianism. There has been debate on whether Aristotle’s ethic is exclusively committed to an intellectualist version or a combination of intellectualism and emotion. There are good arguments for holding either view. The same has not quite been attempted with African communitarianism. This paper seeks to work out whether African communitarianism can be viewed on an exclusively emotional basis or a combination of emotion and intellect.

scholarly journals Consuming Code: Use-Value, Exchange-Value, and the Role of Virtual Goods in Second Life

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Martin
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Significant Growth ◽  
Exchange Value

In recent years, there has been significant growth in consumption of commodities in virtual social worlds, such as Second Life, and in the economies that arise from this practice. While these economic systems have been acknowledged and studied, there remains relatively little understanding of the reasons why individuals choose to purchase such goods, despite the fact that reasons for consumption are strong enough to drive a virtual goods industry with annual profits in the millions of dollars. Virtual goods, the author argues, meet no immediate needs for avatars or individuals and, as such, are purchased based exclusively on their exchange- and symbolic-values. Due to the graphical nature of Second Life and the consequent visibility of commodities within the environment, these reasons for purchasing virtual goods are explored in terms of their roles for users, and especially in terms of their potential for expressing wealth, power, status, individuality, and belonging. As such, this paper considers the roles of consumption in a way that relies on and further illuminates theories of consumption and value with respect to virtual environments and commodities.

The Social Character of Value

2018 ◽  
pp. 19-20
Author(s):  
Rosa Luxemburg
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Social Character ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Classical Political Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complete Failure ◽  
Abstract Labor ◽  
Clear Conception ◽  
Rosa Luxemburg

In this excerpt from The Accumulation of Capital, Rosa Luxemburg explains how classical political economy lacks a clear conception of the commodity—both in the terms of the distinctions between use value and exchange value, as well as between concrete and abstract labor. This metaphysical, essentialist framework leads to a complete failure to understand the social character of labor's capacity to create value.

scholarly journals Los argumentos resbaladizos. El uso practico de razonamientos imperfectos

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mª Teresa López de la Vieja
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Slippery Slope ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
The One ◽  
Practical Argumentation

RESUMENEl artículo analiza el papel desempeñado por los argumentos de pendiente resbaladiza en los debates prácticos. Por un lado, estos argumentos suelen ejemplificar una forma d razonamiento imperfecto o paradójico. De hecho, la Filosofía clásica griega ya identificó las principales dificultades del sorites, el argumento del «montón». Por otro lado, la pendiente resbaladiza llama de nuevo la atención de la Filosofía contemporánea, ya que ocupa un lugar destacado en determinadas cuestiones morales, como pueden ser la eutanasia, los límites de la investigación biomédica, o las posibles consecuencias de la intervención humana sobre el medio ambiente natural y sobe otras especies, no humanas. De esta forma, la Ética aplicada examina los riesgos y efecto son deseables de decisiones que, el comienzo, eran o parecían perfectamente aceptables, y lo hace así a pesar de que la metáfora de la pendiente resbaladiza no pueda aportar suficientes evidencias para frenar aquellas decisiones que comportan riesgos. Aun así, la pendiente sirve para expresar el peligro, la tragedia, los efectos negativos que amenazarían nuestra existencia, o la de las generaciones futuras. Por lo tanto, imágenes como la «caja de Pandora», la «ruptura de los diques», el «alud», no solo transmiten que algunas acciones pueden poner en riesgo la vida sino que, además, ilustran el uso práctico de los argumentos imperfectos.PALABRAS CLAVEpendiente resbaladiza, argumentación práctica, Ética aplicada.ABSTRACTThe article would analyze the role of the slippery-slope arguments in practical debates. On the one hand, they usually exemplify the imperfect, paradoxical reasoning; in fact, the ancient Greek Philosophy already identified the central flaws of the sorites, the «heap» argument. On the other hand, the metaphor of the slippery-slope draws again the attention of contemporary Philosophy, since it has a central part in some ethical issues, as happens with questions like euthanasia, the limits of biomedical research, and the possible consequences of the human action on the natural environment, and on non-humans. So, applied Ethics considers risks and undesirable effects of decisions that, at the very beginning, are, or seem acceptable, in spite of the fact that the slippery-slope could not allege enough evidences to prevent from this risky decision. However, it expresses how danger, tragedy, negative outcome would intrude in our existence, or in the existence of the next generations. Therefore, images like the «Pandora’s box», the «broken docks», the «avalanche», etc, not only suggest that some actions could definitively endanger life, but they illustrate the practical use of imperfect arguments.KEY WORDSslippery- slope, practical argumentation, applied Ethics

scholarly journals Formation and development of the concept of "emotional intelligence": a historically conditioned philosophical analysis

2018 ◽  
pp. 36-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyudmyla Rakityanska
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
Primitive Society ◽  
Primitive People ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
First Time

The article deals with the historically conditioned philosophical aspect of the formation and the development of the concept of «emotional intelligence» from the pre-Christian times to the Antiquity. This concept, as a complex of mental properties of an individual, was first formulated and introduced into the psychological theory by the US scholars P. Salovey and J. Mayer in 1990. However, the origins of ideas on the problem of the unity of the emotional and the rational can be found in religious and philosophical teachings. The Bible contains examples that testify to the role of intelligence in emotional self-regulation of a human being and confirm the existential, «emotional wisdom of mankind». Our research has proven that the idea of the relationship between emotions and the reason as the essential manifestations of an individual is recurrent at all stages of the history of mankind, its roots date back to the time of the primitive society. In various periods of history, that problem was interpreted differently depending on cultural-historical, religious and philosophical traditions, world outlook views regarding the role of human emotions and human reason in the cognizance of the surrounding world, the nature of their interconnection, and attributing parity or priority features to them. The mythical and pagan views of primitive people, their animistic beliefs testified to the undivided nature of their thinking, and were embodied in various visual-sensory forms of collective creativity that combined intellectual, emotional and volitional attitude to the world. As the human civilization developed and the social relationships changed, also changed mythological and philosophical views of primitive people that were opposed by the naive-spontaneous philosophical world outlook of ancient thinkers. The image and the symbol of the primitive society were supplanted by the Logos, i. e. the reason, by means of which the naive-spontaneous philosophy tried to solve world outlook problems. Still, the representatives of the Pythagorean philosophical school can claim the credit for using, for the first time, emotions as the basis for the comprehension of aesthetic phenomena. During that period, for the first time within the ancient Greek philosophy, aesthetic knowledge was formed, to which the notion of «sensuality» was central. The classical period of the ancient Greek philosophy testifies to the priority of the «rationalized world outlook» of the ancient philosophers, who approached the solution of the world outlook issues from the standpoint of reason.

scholarly journals The Political Economy of Sustainability

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Sabau
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Political Development ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Values ◽  
Classical Economics ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Exchange Value

Sustainability is a “contested” concept introduced at the beginning of the 18th century in German forestry circles concerned about sustainable harvests and rebranded in 1987 as “sustainable development” by the Brundtland Report, which defined it as harmonious economic, social, and ecological development that enhances both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations. However, after more than three decades of sustainable development, humanity is on an unsustainable path featuring rampant ecosystem damage, rising social inequality, and harmful cultural homogenization. This paper is a book review of Fred P. Gale’s Political Economy of Sustainability, a book published in 2018 by Edward Elgar Publishers. The book advances the innovative idea that the current lack of progress in implementation of the sustainable development goals is due to the narrow understanding by individuals, firms, states, and political parties of the values underlying sustainability. The book thus starts a much-needed conversation about economic values, a conversation ousted from the neo-classical economics discipline in the late 19th century by the marginalist thinkers who wanted to make it a positive science. The book identifies four elemental economic values—exchange value, labor value, use value, and function value—and argues that basing our socio-economic and political development on only one type of value with the exclusion of the others has led to the current dangerously unsustainable path humankind is on. Achieving sustainability value requires a balanced integration of all four types of values in all deliberations about socio-economic activities. How can this be accomplished? The author proposes a pragmatic solution in the form of a “tetravaluation” process, a dialogue involving multiple value holders able to reflexively negotiate and compromise until the pluralistic sustainability value is discovered and accepted by all the parties. The book challenges the unsustainable functioning of existing economic, political, and cultural institutions and invites a rethinking of their governance, which should deliberately embrace the pluralistic value of sustainability. The tetravaluation process has the potential to generate sustainable choices and inform better policy decisions able to protect at the same time the proponents of exchange value (consumers), the promoters of labor value (workers, producers), the beneficiaries of use value (communities), and the holder of functional values (the environment).

Between Necessity and Extravagance: Silver as a commodity in the Hellenistic Period

2007 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 315-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katerina Panagopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Economic Behaviour ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Traded Goods ◽  
Hellenistic World ◽  
The Mediterranean

The remarkably high numbers of silver items (traded goods and coins) found around the Mediterranean during the Hellenistic period, compared to the earlier periods, is inextricably bound with the increase in the amounts of silver extracted and with the wider recognition and acceptance of this metal in the Hellenistic world. Not least, the fact that silver, through its dual role as money and as a commercial commodity, binds use value with exchange value in Hellenistic societies, challenges one to explore the economic behaviour of this metal within the broader economic picture.The present article offers a multidisciplinary approach to the role of silver in Hellenistic economies along these lines. Through the study of literary, epigraphical and archaeological evidence, it embarks on a survey of the ways in which mining, the function of metal workshops, trade and population movements, wars regulated or influenced the spread of silver commodities around the Mediterranean. The construction of a theoretical model regarding the economic behaviour of silver enables us to identify broadly the mechanisms of (re)distribution of silver items in Hellenistic micro- and macroeconomics.

scholarly journals Economia política da informação e comunicação em tempos de internet: revisitando a teoria do valor nas redes e no espetáculo | Political economy of information and communication in the internet era: revisiting value theory in networks and in entertainment

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Dantas
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Current Production ◽  
The Media ◽  
Production Conditions

Resumo o pilar teórico da Economia Política é a teoria do valor-trabalho. O capitalismo contemporâneo vem submetendo essa teoria a desafios teóricos e práticos pois, nas atuais condições de produção, o valor de troca estaria sendo esvaziado, subsistindo o valor de uso. O texto procura mostrar que a compreensão desses problemas pode estar no cerne das preocupações da Economia Política da Informação, Comunicação e Cultura (EPICC), já que o seu objeto de estudo é o processo de trabalho e valorização nos meios de comunicação, na produção de espetáculos e, agora, também, na internet.Palavras-chave valor de uso, valor de troca, trabalho, informação, internet, "jardins murados"Abstract the pillar of Political Economy theory is the theory of labor value. Contemporary capitalism has subjected this theory to theoretical and practical challenges because, under current production conditions, the exchange value was being emptied, subsisting use value. The text seeks to show that understanding of these problems can be at the core concerns of the Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture (PEICC), since its subject is the process of work and valorization in the media, the production of entertanment, and now also on the Internet. Keywords: use value, exchange value, labour, information, internet, "walled gardens"

scholarly journals Genesis of Spatiology. •

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Daragó
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Second World

We can find the sprouts of the architectural approach of space in ancient Greek Philosophy. The process lasts from the Pythagorean notion (kenon) – which is the emptiness between the numbers – to the definition of space by St Augustine, where he determines the forming of space as the main role of architecture. The enquiry regarding architectural approach of space intensified after the Second World War – Hajnóczi joined into this discourse with his works on the field of spatial theory in the 1960’s. He intended to create a unified framework for the different approaches of space from different fields of science. This common range of interpretation is deriving from the analytic understanding of space – that is Spatiology. Overviewing Hajnóczi’s theoretical works we will try to show the evolution of his thoughts and will try to identify the antecedents of his theoretical structures in the works of contemporary thinkers. In his academic doctorate dissertation in 1977 with the analytic approach he subdivided the architectural space into its elemental spatial relations generated by the constructional objects and then he has attempted to give the quantitative and also the qualitative understanding of them. In his Genesis – as the last accord of his oeuvre – he tried to understand the particular elements of this system and also build an intelligent whole of them again.A tér építészeti értelmezésének megalapozását az európai kultúrában már a görög bölcseletben megleljük. A püthegóreusok számok közötti ürességétől (kenon) az építészeti tér Szt. Ágoston általi meghatározásáig tart a folyamat, melyben végül az építészet legfőbb feladataként a tér alakítását határozták meg. Ezen értelmezések körüli érdeklődés felizzott a második világháborút követő időben – ebbe a diskurzusba kapcsolódott be Hajnóczi Gyula térelméleti munkássága az 1960-as években. Azzal a szándékkal lépett fel, hogy egységes keretet adjon a sok tudományág felől érkező építészeti tér-értelmezéseknek. Ez a közös értelmezési tartomány a tér analitikus értelmezéséből sarjad – ezt a tértudományt nevezte el spaciológiának. Végigtekintve Hajnóczi Gyula térelméleti műveit igyekszünk bemutatni a gondolatok kifejlődésének folyamatát, valamint kísérletet teszünk arra, hogy felmutassuk a kortárs kutatók munkásságában Hajnóczi Gyula gondolati rendszerének előzményeit. Az 1977-ben megjelent akadémiai doktori értekezésében az építészeti tér analitikus értelmezésével szétbontotta az építészeti teret az azt meghatározó konstruktív közegek elemi térviszonylataira, és ezek mennyiségi és minőségi értelmezését kísérelte meg. Az életmű végső akkordjaként írt, Az építészeti tér genezise c. műve az analitikusan szétbontott és egyenként értelmezett térelemek rendszerének megértésére, az elemek újbóli összeépítésére tett kísérletet.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document