ABSTRACT
The overall aim of this chapter is to explain Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism and prove its compatibility with what he claims in The German Ideology. This chapter also offers an overview of how Marx’s materialist theory is applied to the capitalist mode of production. After a brief summary of the chapter’s content, the first section discusses the commodity form through a close reading of Capital Volume I. After that it focuses on explaining the statements presented by Marx in the section of Capital Volume I dedicated to the problem of fetishism. The relationships between capital, labour, and surplus value are then explained. Attention is also given to the relationship between surplus accumulation and the remarks made by Marx concerning fetishism. The book then comes back to the works of Eagleton, Rosen, Rehmann, and Larrain (as well as those of Norman Geras and Cohen) and their interpretations of commodity fetishism. It explains some of the main disagreements concerning Marx’s concept. After that I offer an explanation of commodity fetishism as a ‘sub-theory’ of Marx’s theory of the formation of ideas (as elaborated in the second chapter). Finally, I present a summary of the chapter’s content as well as providing a bullet point explaining the application of Marx’s historical materialism to capitalism.
