IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v17y2005i3p381-406.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sraffa and Wittgenstein: Physicalism and constructivism

Author

Listed:
  • Mathieu Marion

Abstract

After a brief review of facts and hypotheses concerning Piero Sraffa's intellectual exchanges with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and their content, a brief presentation of some of the basic ideas of Productions of Commodities by Means of Commodities is given, on the basis of which I argue, first, that Sraffa's 'objectivism' in economics is closely related to the 'physicalism' towards which Wittgenstein moved soon after his return to Cambridge and, secondly, that the mathematics of that book are in line with Wittgenstein's constructivist stance, as it is already found in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathieu Marion, 2005. "Sraffa and Wittgenstein: Physicalism and constructivism," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 381-406.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:17:y:2005:i:3:p:381-406
    DOI: 10.1080/09538250500147114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09538250500147114
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538250500147114?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steedman, Ian, 1976. "Positive Profits with Negative Surplus Value: A Reply to Wolfstetter," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 86(344), pages 873-876, December.
    2. Schefold, Bertram, 1980. "Von Neumann and Sraffa: Mathematical Equivalence and Conceptual Difference," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 140-156, March.
    3. Alessandro Roncaglia, 1979. "Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Political Economy," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 48-53, January.
    4. Dostaler, Gilles, 1982. "Marx et Sraffa," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 58(1), pages 95-114, janvier-j.
    5. John Davis, 2002. "Gramsci, Sraffa, Wittgenstein: philosophical linkages," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 384-401.
    6. Davis, J B, 1988. "Sraffa, Wittgenstein and Neoclassical Economics," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 12(1), pages 29-36, March.
    7. Steedman, Ian, 1976. "Positive Profits with Negative Surplus Value: A Reply," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 86(343), pages 604-608, September.
    8. Bidard, Christian, 1990. "An Algorithmic Theory of the Choice of Techniques," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(4), pages 839-859, July.
    9. Punzo, Lionello F., 1991. "The School of Mathematical Formalism and the Viennese Circle of Mathematical Economists," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amiya Kumar Bagchi, 2019. "Piero Sraffa: Making a Revolution in Economic Theory," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 31(2), pages 217-234, July.
    2. Rodríguez-Arana, Alejandro, 2016. "Una visión crítica del problema de indeterminación de la distribución del ingreso en el sistema económico de piero Sraffa./ A critical view of the problem indeterminacy of distributionincome in the sy," Panorama Económico, Escuela Superior de Economía, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, vol. 12(23), pages 7-28, Segundo s.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heinz Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2001. "Sraffa and von Neumann," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 161-180.
    2. Arrigo Opocher, 2005. "FORMALIZING WIESER's THEORY OF DISTRIBUTION: CONSISTENT IMPUTATION IN ALTERNATIVE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 200-220, May.
    3. Christian Bidard, 2012. "The Frail Grounds of the Ricardian Dynamics," EconomiX Working Papers 2012-43, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    4. Christian Bidard & Guido Erreygers, 1998. "The number and type of long-term equilibria," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 181-205, June.
    5. Dominique Levy & Gérard Dumenil, 1982. "Valeurs et prix de production. Le cas des productions jointes," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 33(1), pages 30-70.
    6. Rodolfo Signorino, 2000. "Method and analysis in Piero Sraffa's 1925 critique of Marshallian economics," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 569-594.
    7. Mariolis, Theodore & Soklis, George, 2014. "The Sraffian Multiplier for the Greek Economy: Evidence from the Supply and Use Table for the Year 2010," MPRA Paper 60253, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Nuno Ornelas Martins, 2012. "Mathematics, Science and the Cambridge Tradition," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 1(2), pages 1-2, December.
    9. Christian Bidard, 2012. "The Frail Grounds of the Ricardian Dynamics," Working Papers hal-04141039, HAL.
    10. Amiya Kumar Bagchi, 2019. "Piero Sraffa: Making a Revolution in Economic Theory," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 31(2), pages 217-234, July.
    11. Soklis, George, 2011. "Wage-profit curves of the Finnish economy: evidence from the supply and use tables," MPRA Paper 30183, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Nikolaos Ntemiroglou, 2016. "The Sraffian Multiplier and the Key-Commodities for the Greek Economy: Evidence from the Input-Output Tables for the Period 2000-2010," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24, June.
    13. Móczár, József, 2017. "Ergodic Versus Uncertain Financial Processes – Part II: Neoclassical and Institutional Economics," Public Finance Quarterly, Corvinus University of Budapest, vol. 62(4), pages 478-501.
    14. Arthur Brackmann Netto, 2017. "The Double Edge of Case-Studies: A Frame-Based Definition of Economic Models," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2017_21, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    15. Eric Berr, 1999. "Demande effective, monnaie et prix de production : une extension circuitiste de la Théorie générale," Documents de travail 42, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    16. Becchio Giandomenica, 2009. "A historical reconstruction of the connections between the Viennese neopositivists and the American pragmatists: economic theory in the project for the International Encyclopaedia of Unified Science," CESMEP Working Papers 200904, University of Turin.
    17. Giorgos Galanis & Roberto Veneziani & Naoki Yoshihara, 2018. "The dynamics of exploitation and inequality in economies with heterogeneous agents," Working Papers SDES-2018-10, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Oct 2018.
    18. Ekeland, Ivar & Guesnerie, Roger, 2010. "The geometry of global production and factor price equalisation," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 666-690, September.
    19. Nuno Ornelas Martins, 2017. "Spatial dimensions of Antonio Gramsci's contribution," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 83-99, June.
    20. Mariolis, Theodore, 2010. "Κριτική Έκθεση του "Νόμου της Πτωτικής Τάσης του Ποσοστού Κέρδους" του K. Marx: Κατανομή Εισοδήματος, Επισώρευση Κεφαλαίου και Τεχνολογική Μεταβολή στη Μακρά Περίοδο [Critical Exposition ," MPRA Paper 22461, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:17:y:2005:i:3:p:381-406. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.