Goods aesthetics

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Commodity aesthetics is a term used in political economy , especially in its expression in the critical theory of society founded by Karl Marx .

The term is based on the distinction made by Adam Smith and Karl Marx between use value and exchange value of a commodity . The German philosopher Wolfgang Fritz Haug used this analytical difference in his work Critique of Goods Aesthetics (1971) to go beyond the mere functional determination of goods and to determine the supposed pseudo character of any product aesthetic. It says: "Note is so important - and in fact more important - than being for the execution of the act of purchase. What is only something but does not look like 'being' is not bought. What seems to be something is bought." The book describes the modes of production of Fordism from a critical-analytical perspective.

In a social order in which consumer goods are primarily produced for sale, the aesthetics of goods is the promise that the seller makes to a potential buyer that the product has a use value for the latter to satisfy needs. It is irrelevant whether it really has this, it is crucial for the purchase to take place that the promise is accepted. On the one hand, this "use value promise" models the product aesthetically in such a way that it is sensually appealing with the aim of realizing its exchange value (= being sold). On the other hand, the modeling of goods also changes people's sensuality. The aesthetics of a product can be expressed in the mere presentation of product packaging, its arrangement on sales areas, in the case of services in a flattering presentation to a branded product image that has been detached from the product body itself .

In 2009 Haug tried to update it with the addition of goods aesthetics in high-tech capitalism .

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Haug, Wolfgang Fritz: Critique of Goods Aesthetics. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main, 2009, p. 29