Words    Words    Words

Brust’s Law is as follows: Truth is counter-intuitive.
I remember the first time a teacher explained to me that a gas took up more volume per weight than the same substance as a solid.  That was obviously ridiculous; gas is malleable, so clearly it can be pressed into a smaller space than a solid would.  Right?  [...]

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We now have three concepts: use-value, exchange-value, and value.  (I’m not sure under what conditions Marx capitalizes the V in value; it seems inconsistent, but I’m guessing there is a reason for it somewhere).
Use-value refers to the material particulars of the commodity; size, weight, chemical composition, shape, &c.  Exchange-value refers to the quantity of that [...]

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Amanda Palmer has been involved in some controversy regarding a recent project (thank you, Miarr, for pointing me to it).  I’m not talking about it, thinking about it, or linking to it.  And if the controversy itself becomes the subject here, I’ll probably close comments.
But, in the course of the discussion, she said something that [...]

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Today I was at a Borders looking for Poker Pro magazine (on account of I’m in it, how cool is that?).  While there, I, as usual, checked the sf section to see how well represented I was.  I skimmed past the row Jim Butcher, found the row of Lois Bujold, and there I was.  Two [...]

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Page 38: “If then we leave out of consideration the use-value of commodities, they have only one common property left, that of being products of labour.  But even the product of labour itself has undergone a change in our hands.  If we make abstraction from its use-value, we make abstraction at the same time from [...]

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Page 36: “Exchange-value, at first sight, presents itself as a quantitative relation, as the proportion in which values in use of one sort are exchanged for for those of another sort, a relation constantly changing with time and place.”
Since I was just discussing this with Scott in the previous post, I’ll quote myself, so I [...]

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Part 1 is “Commodities and Money.”  Chapter 1 is “Commodities.”  Section 1: “The two factors of a commodity: use-value and value (the substance of value and the magnitude of value)”
Page 35: “The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as ‘an immense accumulation of commodities,’ it’s unit being [...]

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Volume 1 of Capital was first published in 1865.  I am using the 1967 edition by International Publishers Co, Inc., including the changes made by Engels for the fourth edition, 1887.  LofC# 67-19754, ISBN 0-7178-00170-2.
Volume 1 is: “A critical analysis of capitalist production”
The first requirement for human history is human beings.  That is, we [...]

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We’re still waiting for a few external things before the Brand!  New! blog and homepage come to exist.  Meanwhile, I’m about ready to declare myself done with The Wealth of Nations. While I still have several chapter to comment on, I have read them, and they do not concern aspects of political economy that interest [...]

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I was listening to NPR today, where the discussion was of a new video game based on Dante’s Inferno.  During the discussion, the following profound thought was expressed: “You lose a lot when you go from epic poem to video game.”

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Among the many and ongoing interesting discussions at our home, we’ve been talking about the concept we’re calling “internal logic” for a character. Internal logic here means that, among other things:  an action that to an outside observer appears irrational, wrong, or evil, from the internal viewpoint of the character will be a justified, logical, [...]

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