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In Karl Marx's critique of political economy, commodity fetishism is the perception of the social relationships involved in production, not as relationships among people, but as economic relationships among the money and commodities exchanged in market trade. As such, commodity fetishism transforms the ''subjective'', abstract aspects of economic value into ''objective'', real things that people believe have intrinsic value.〔Isaak Illich Rubin said that "The theory of fetishism is, per se, the basis of Marx's entire economic system, and, in particular, of his theory of value." — ''Essays on Marx's Theory of Value''. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1990, p. 5.〕 The theory of commodity fetishism is presented in the first chapter of ''Capital: Critique of Political Economy'' (1867), at the conclusion of the analysis of the value-form of commodities, to explain that the social organization of labour is mediated through market exchange, the buying and the selling of commodities (goods and services). Hence, in a capitalist society, social relations between people—who makes what, who works for whom, the production-time for a commodity, et cetera—are perceived as economic relations among objects, that is, how valuable a given commodity is when compared to another commodity. Therefore, the market exchange of commodities masks (obscures) the true economic character of the human relations of production, between the worker and the capitalist. Karl Marx explained the philosophic concepts underlying commodity fetishism thus: ==The concept of fetishism== The theory of commodity fetishism ((ドイツ語:Warenfetischismus)) originated from Karl Marx's references to ''fetishes'' and ''fetishism'' in his analyses of religious superstition, and in the criticism of the beliefs of political economists.〔The various references in the 'Wood Theft' articles to idols, animal masks, workship of animals, and fetishes, reflect Marx's systematic study (1841–42) of primitive religion. The notebooks indicate that Marx was especially interested in the concept of fetishism — its nature, its origins, and the difference between ancient and modern forms of fetishism. (MEGA, Vol . 1, Part 2 p. 115ff) — 〕 Marx borrowed the concept of "fetishism" from ''The Cult of Fetish Gods'' (1760) by Charles de Brosses, which proposed a materialist theory of the origin of religion.〔''Du culte des dieux fétiches, ou Parallèle de l'ancienne religion de l'Egypte avec la religion actuelle de Nigritie'' (1760) (). The German translation was ''Uber den Dienst der fetischengotter oder Vergleichung der alten religion Egyptians mit den heutigen Religion Nigritiens. Ubersetzt von Christain Brandanus Hermann Pistorius.'' Berlin, Stralsund: Gottlieb August Lange, 1785. For a study of the conceptual origin of fetishism, see: William Pietz, "The problem of the fetish, I", ''Res'' 9 (Spring 1985), pp. 5–17; "The problem of the fetish, II: The origin of the fetish", ''Res'' 13 (Spring 1987), pp. 23–45; "The problem of the fetish, III: Bosman's Guinea and the enlightenment theory of fetishism", ''Res'' 16 (Autumn 1988), pp. 105–123.〕 Moreover, in the 1840s, the philosophic discussion of fetishism by Auguste Comte, and Ludwig Feuerbach's psychological interpretation of religion also influenced Marx's development of commodity fetishism.〔(''The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte'' (1830–1842) )〕〔(Feuerbach, ''The Essence of Christianity'' )〕 Marx's first mention of fetishism appeared in 1842, in his response to a newspaper article by Karl Heinrich Hermes, which defended the Prussian state on religious grounds.〔http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1842/07/10.htm〕 Hermes agreed with the German philosopher Hegel in regarding fetishism as the crudest form of religion. Marx dismissed that argument, and Hermes's definition of religion as that which elevates man "above sensuous appetites". Instead, Marx said that fetishism is "the religion of sensuous appetites", and that the fantasy of the appetites tricks the fetish worshipper into believing that an inanimate object will yield its natural character to gratify the desires of the worshipper. Therefore, the crude appetite of the fetish worshipper smashes the fetish when it ceases to be of service.〔Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, ''On religion''. Atlanta: Scholars, 1982, p. 22.〕 The next mention of fetishism was in the 1842 ''Rheinische Zeitung'' newspaper articles about the "Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood", wherein Marx spoke of the Spanish fetishism of gold and the German fetishism of wood as commodities: () In the ''Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'', Marx spoke of the European fetish of precious-metal money: In the ethnological notebooks, he commented upon the archæological reportage of ''The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man: Mental and Social conditions of Savages'' (1870), by John Lubbock.〔Lawrence Krader (ed.), ''The Ethnological Notebooks of Karl Marx: Studies of Morgan, Phear, Maine, Lubbock''. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1972, p. 342f.〕 In the ''Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy'' (Grundrisse, 1859), he criticized the statist, anti-socialist arguments of the French economist Frédéric Bastiat; and about fetishes and fetishism Marx said: In ''A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'' (1859), Marx referred to ''A Discourse on the Rise, Progress, Peculiar Objects, and Importance of Political Economy'' (1825), by John Ramsay McCulloch, who said that "In its natural state, matter . . . is always destitute of value", with which Marx concurred, saying that "this shows how high even a McCulloch stands above the fetishism of German 'thinkers' who assert that 'material', and half a dozen similar irrelevancies are elements of value". Furthermore, in the manuscript of "Results of the Immediate Process of Production" (ca. 1864), an appendix to ''Capital: Critique of Political Economy'', Volume 1 (1867), Marx said that: Hence did Karl Marx apply the concepts of ''fetish'' and ''fetishism'', derived from economic and ethnologic studies, to the development of the theory of commodity fetishism, wherein an economic abstraction (value) is psychologically transformed (reified) into an object, which people choose to believe has an intrinsic value, in and of itself.〔For more details, see 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Commodity fetishism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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