Problem
What does Marx mean when he wrote that commodities are invested with "magical powers"? What is the twofold nature of the commodity? What does the role of human labor play in the process, and why is its incorporation in the process of producing commodities problematic? Importantly, how does recognizing the argument Marx presented in this section of the first volume of his main work, Capital, enable us to clarify what Marx was trying to achieve, and why many interpretations of Marx (e.g., as a conflict theorist, as a theorist of exploitation, as a class theorist) are too simplistic and not conducive to appreciating (i) what Marx was trying to make visible about capital, and (ii) how he was an important precursor of sociology who remains important today?