What is "commodity fetishism"? A textual analysis of the fourth section of the first chapter of Marx's Capital

Abstract

This article offers a detailed comment on the fourth section of the first chapter of Marx's Capital, in order to determine and specify what exactly is the so-called "commodity fetishism". It is shown that in that section Marx is not dealing mainly with the misunderstanding of the commodity–form nor with the "reification" of social relations inherent of that form. Instead, the article claims that, for Marx, fetishism is a form of consciousness —arousing from the private character of labour— that mediates the very constitution of the commodity as such. In this sense, it is argued that value is not simply a form of social relation but, more precisely, an exteriorized and objectified form of consciousness through which the commodity producers organise social production.