Use Value and Substantive Rationality in the Work of Marx and Weber

Abstract

Two particularly important dichotomies for anyone studying modern social theory are Marx’s distinction between use values and exchange values and Weber’s distinction between substantive and formal rationality. Indeed, it might be argued that in these dichotomies lies a basis for understanding core elements of several of their most central arguments concerning capitalism as one of the three or four key institutions of/in modernity. In this article, I want not only to discuss the functions performed by these dichotomies in their respective theoretical structures, but also to indicate some later instances of parallel forms of thinking. My aim here is to address both the central role of dichotomies and dichotomization, and some important differences in the ways they are deployed in and/or function as theoretical strategies.