Marx and the fetish of the merchandise: contribution to criticism of metaphysics

Abstract

Statements like “the market is excited” or “the market is confused” are extremely common in economic or political news. Economists and economic journalists take this prosopopoeia so seriously that they seem to be, in fact, commenting on the feelings and sensations of a conscious living being. The concern with keeping the market healthy even outweighs the need to keep the people healthy. This phenomenon of hypostatization of capital, that is, this way of viewing the market as an entity, is a result, according to Marx, of fetishism. It is as if a spell enchanted people and they began to understand merchandise, money and capital as living, animated and divine beings. This is the general theme of Jadir Antunes' book.