ABSTRACT
The commodity- and sign-forms express a double reciprocity and a double structural relation of equivalence. As a social relation predicated upon a logic of equivalence paralleling that determining exchange-value, the system from which use-value emerges is 'founded on the mere adequation of an object to its end'. While the commodity destroys ambivalence through a principle of equivalence, the sign achieves the same effect through its arbitrary discretion. At the very least, economy and culture depend upon one another, bend to one another, and penetrate one another. The material through which the commodity passes, such as the wood of a wooden table, is a haunted house: occultation of culture and economy. Value, 'while constantly assuming the form in turn of money and commodities, it at the same time changes in magnitude, differentiates itself by throwing off surplus-value from itself.
