Beyond reification

Reclaiming Marx!s concept of the fetish character of the commodity

Bibliographic Data

ID13124263
AuthorsNicole Pepperell (0000-0003-1290-8019, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume2
Issue2
Pages33-55
Publication date2018-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueKontradikce (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2570-7485
PublisherInstitute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.46957/con.2018.2.3
OpenAlexW3083727697
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited2

György Lukács’s infl uential interpretation of commodity fetishism as “reifi cation” shapes many contemporary critiques of the apparently objective and impersonal form taken by capitalist social relations. Such critiques seek to debunk the false veil of objectivity that results from fetishism, revealing the real character of the social relations underneath. Th is line of criticism, however, often attributes totalising power to capitalism, which undermines its own critical standpoint. I argue that the solution to this dilemma lies in understanding the fetish not as an ideological veil that needs to be debunked, but instead as a novel form of social interdependence that is genuinely – not illusorily – impersonal. Th is impersonal form is generated by a diverse array of disparate social practices whose interaction yields this unanticipated and unintended result. Within this framework, the diversity of the underlying social practices off ers a practical potential basis for constituting new forms of social interdependence that lack not only the semblance, but also the reality of capitalism’s oppressive objectivity

Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Reification (Marxism · Sociology · Computer Science · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Post-Communist Economic and Political Transition

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