Marx’s Law of value and the ontology of labour: a Castoriadian critical point of view
Marx’s Law of value and the ontology of labour: a Castoriadian critical point of view
Author(s): Richard SobelSubject(s): Philosophy, Social Sciences, Economy, Special Branches of Philosophy, Sociology, Philosophy of Science, Social Theory, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Editura Rosetti International
Keywords: law of value; naturalism, work; social ontology; Marx; Castoriadis;
Summary/Abstract: In Marx’s thought, is ‘law of value’ a particular law of capitalism (historicism) or a general law of the economy (naturalism)? To clarify this ambiguity, this article proposes to employ the social ontology of Cornélius Castoriadis. For it, ‘labour’ is not a substance, but a recent historical creation through which, finally, the capitalist mode of production expresses a fundamental truth about all society’s way of being. From this perspective, we explore some consequences of this deconstruction for the theory of value as current neo-Marxist approaches may employ it today in their economic analyses.
Journal: Journal of Philosophical Economics
- Issue Year: XIII/2020
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 116-136
- Page Count: 21
- Language: English