Illustration
To understand the concept of a commodity, consider a chair. It is a commodity if the chair is a tradable product of human work possessing a social use-value. By contrast, a fallen log of deadwood sat upon in the forest is not a commodity, as it was not produced by human work for the purpose of trade. A chair created by a hobbyist as a gift to someone is not a commodity. Nor is a chair a commodity (as a chair) if its only use would be as firewood (unless one purchases a chair specifically to chop it up for firewood). A chair that nothing could sit on, has no use-value, and cannot be a commodity. An ornamental chair might yet however, have value.
Read more about this topic: Commodity (Marxism)
Famous quotes containing the word illustration:
“An illustration is no argument,—nor do I maintain the wiping of a looking-glass clean, to be a syllogism;Mbut you all, may it please your worships, see the better for it.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“Each truth that a writer acquires is a lantern, which he turns full on what facts and thoughts lay already in his mind, and behold, all the mats and rubbish which had littered his garret become precious. Every trivial fact in his private biography becomes an illustration of this new principle, revisits the day, and delights all men by its piquancy and new charm.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)