PHIL 3033 may 18 week 3

Capitalist Ethics
The invisible Hand of the Market
The self-interested pursuit of ones perceived interests benefits both
the individual and society as a whole by increasing wealth and, thus,
happiness
Perceived interest: An individuals desires or needs the
attainment or satisfaction of which the individual considers to be the
most beneficial path of action.
Capitalist Ethics
1. Property rights
A. Ownership of oneself
B. Ownership of goods
2. Productivity
Division of labour
-Increased creativity due to focus on smaller, simpler tasks
- philosophers?
- Research and invention
3. Wealth
Higher productivity means less work needed for basic
things and a higher chance of working beyond the bare
minimum.
More labour beyond the bare minimum means more
income in the form of e.g., trade (higher productivity
means more things can be made, thus lowering their price
through competition. Lower prices mean more disposable
income. More disposable income means more money to
buy consumer goods).
Commodity Fetishism
In capitalism: Wealth= abundance of commodities[products]
What Is a Commodity?
Commodity: An object that satisfies wants and that has
(economic) value
Whatever the want may be
Lets Talk About Objects
Quality of an object (features/properties)
Quantity of an object (how many)
A commodity gets its use- value from its physical qualities
Use- Value
Use-value: The worth of an object for the completion of tasks
(what is can be used for)
-independent of the labour and time it takes to use the
property in question
To say that a product( i.e., commodity) has use-value is to
say the product can be used to satisfy a want (e.g., be
consumed, be used as a took, etc.)
According to Marx,
Use-value is the substance (i.e., the true basis of wealth

in society
In capitalism, is believed to be the grounds of exchangevalue
Exchange-value
Prima facie, it seems like proportion in which use-values
are exchanged
Therefore, it seems like something relative and
fluctuating
Overall, it is about exchange and commodities, but now?
What makes a commodity a commodity?
Marx: not use-value, but labour
The common feature of commodities is human labour in the
abstract. (640)
individual commodities are embodies human labour.
The true value of a commodity is not its use, but its embodied
labour.
A product (as use- value) has (economic) value
only because human labour. (640)
How do we measure Value?
Marx:
Not individual labour, but socially required labour (recall
Adam Smith on productivity)
A commodity is therefore a mysterious thing,..0f their
labour. (641)
Fetish
Commodity Fetishism
In the commodity there is A definite social relation
between men [i.e., labour], that assumes, in their eyes, the
fantastic form of a relation between things. (641)
In believing that objects have value in themselves which
can be measured and exchanged, we are mistaking a
human activity (i.e., labour) for a property of the object.
Question: what are some possible consequences of commodity
fetishism?
Buddhist Economics
Right Livelihood
Part of the Buddhas Eightfold Path
What should an economy be like from the perspective of the
tradition?
Materialism( abundance of goods)
Labour is a burden we must endure to partake in the
consumption of wealth
Smiths Notion od Wealth Revisited
For the employer, paying workers is a cost to be
minimized at all costs in order to maximized profit
Productivity is to be maximized via division of labour
labour divided into ever-simpler, ever-shorter, menial

tasks
Buddhist View of Work
An opportunity:
For self-improvement
For self-overcoming
For self-satisfaction
Contrasts with work with as seen in capitalist ethics
Buddhist View of Mechanization
Good mechanization: empowering tool
Bad mechanization: enslaving machine
Back to Work
The Buddhist sees the essence of civilization not in a
multiplication of wants but in the purification of human
character. (654)
How is it purified? Through work
Under the right conditions, work is a need- it provided the
opportunity to develop self- discipline
Buddhist View of Wealth
To a materialist economist, more wealth in the form of more
wealth in the form of more goods may even require
unemployment
-It may even require keeping people out of the workforce
through some
form of welfare.
To the Buddhist economist, this is upside-down because it
prioritizes good over people and consumption over creative
activity
Buddhism is not about hatred of wealth, but liberation from
the suffering attached to wealth
The Rationality of Buddhism
If we seek to consume in order to improve our well-being, and
consumption is the satisfaction of wants and needs, we should seek
to maximizing satisfaction while minimizing consumption
E.g, clothing
In materialist economics, consumption is intrinsically worthy
In Buddhist economics, consumption is only instrumentally
worthy
---- the ownershipmeans(655)
Simplicity
Simplicity achieves another Buddhist goal: it leads to nonviolence
Simplicity leads to less conflict due to scarcity
Simplicity leads to more localized patterns of production
and consumption
Simplicity leads to sustainability