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Marx’s Metaphysics of Human Labour in the Light of Sraffa: Labour Theory of Value Reconsidered

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Karl Marx’s Life, Ideas, and Influences

Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms ((MAENMA))

Abstract

In this chapter, I analyse the foundations of Marx’s analysis of a capitalist economy in terms of labour time to locate the root cause of Marx’s problem of relating values to prices and surplus values to profits, and then show how Sraffa succeeds in solving the problem by liberating Marx from his metaphysics of “human labour.”

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. I (Indianapolis: Library Fund, 1981).

  2. 2.

    David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951).

  3. 3.

    For my detailed analysis of Adam Smith’s and Ricardo’s theories of value, see Ajit Sinha, Theories of Value from Adam Smith to Piero Sraffa (London: Routledge, 2018) and Essays on Theories of Value in the Classical Tradition (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

  4. 4.

    Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. II (London: Penguin Classics, 1992), 450.

  5. 5.

    Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I (New York: Vintage, 1977), 125.

  6. 6.

    See Ajit Sinha, Theories of Value from Adam Smith to Piero Sraffa (London: Routledge, 2018) for a discussion on this point.

  7. 7.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. I, 269f24; (emphasis added).

  8. 8.

    Ibid., 268–9.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., 135.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 305f19.

  11. 11.

    Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. III (London: Penguin Classics, 1991), 252.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., 300.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 264; emphasis added.

  14. 14.

    Karl Marx, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (New York: International Publishers, 1964), 107.

  15. 15.

    Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology (New York: International Publishers, 1991), 42.

  16. 16.

    Karl Marx, Grundrisse (Middlesex: Pelican Books, 1973).

  17. 17.

    Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (New York: International Publishers, 1970), 19.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., 20–1.

  19. 19.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. I, 90.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., 279–80.

  21. 21.

    Piero Sraffa, Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960).

  22. 22.

    W.S. Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy (New York: Kelly & Millman, Inc., 1957).

  23. 23.

    Carl Menger, Principles of Economics (Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007).

  24. 24.

    Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, Vols. 1–3 (Illinois: Liberation Press, 1959).

  25. 25.

    Knut Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. I: General Theory (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1934).

  26. 26.

    Piero Sraffa, Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), 94.

  27. 27.

    For a detailed analysis of my reinterpretation of Sraffa, see Ajit Sinha, A Revolution in Economic Theory: The Economics of Piero Sraffa (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

  28. 28.

    Ibid., 22–3.

  29. 29.

    David Ricardo, Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. VIII (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952), 194.

  30. 30.

    Piero Sraffa, “Introduction”, In Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951).

  31. 31.

    Piero Sraffa, Sraffa Papers (Cambridge: Wren Library), D3/12/111: 132, letter to Eaton dated 12 February 1961.

  32. 32.

    This section is inspired by a comment to an earlier draft of this chapter by Professor Geoffrey Harcourt, who wrote: “I have now read your essay on Marx’s Labour theory of value…. I think it is a very clear statement of your arguments. I agree with all except your last conclusion. I think the LTV is a qualitative argument in terms of unequal power between the classes which explains the origin of profits in the sphere of production, prior to their realisation (or not) in the sphere of distribution and exchange. I still find that this illuminates understanding of the essential nature of capitalist dynamics.” See GCH with Prue Kerr, “Marx, Karl Heinrich (1818–83),” in International Encyclopedia of Business and Management, ed. Malcolm Warner (London: Routledge, 1996), 3388–95.

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Acknowledgements

I take this opportunity to thank Professors Amit Bhaduri, Meghnad Desai, and Geoffrey Harcourt for their comments on an earlier draft of this chapter—the usual caveat applies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India

    Ajit Sinha

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  1. Ajit Sinha
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Asian Development Research Institute, Patna, Bihar, India

    Shaibal Gupta

  2. Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Marcello Musto

  3. London School of Economics, London, UK

    Babak Amini

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Sinha, A. (2019). Marx’s Metaphysics of Human Labour in the Light of Sraffa: Labour Theory of Value Reconsidered. In: Gupta, S., Musto, M., Amini, B. (eds) Karl Marx’s Life, Ideas, and Influences. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24815-4_14

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