From: paul cockshott (clyder@GN.APC.ORG)
Date: Tue Nov 18 2003 - 05:10:22 EST
But a further limitation of this theory, or at least a limitation of how it has been used, is that it does not admit of contradictory constraints, for example Marx's aggregate equalities. I don't want to argue whether Marx's equalities do or do not hold. Instead I want to point out that some interpreters of Sraffa's theory deny the existence of contradictory constraints in reality, for no other reason, it seems to me at least, than sets of overdetermined equations cannot be solved (or they think they cannot be solved). ------------------------------------- Could you give an example of Sraffas interpreters doing this? ------------------------------------- Now if there are economic mechanisms that are in contradiction (or opposition) to each other, and strive to attain mutually incompatible configurations. For example, denying the law of value is an active mechanism, or denying that there is a tendency for profits rates to equalise. The fallacy consists in reducing transfactually active mechanisms in open systems to the effects they generate in closed systems. -------------------------------------------------- Can you be a bit more precise about what you mean by open and closed systems here? -------------------------------------------------- Paul: I take your point. It depends on what we include as constraints, and what we include as solution methods. The matrix inversion solution methods that solve Sraffian economies clearly do not correspond to the dynamics of an evolving economy, dynamics that could be viewed as an unfolding solution to the same set of constraints. The difference is between a logico-deductive model and a causal model, between modelling the problem and modelling how the child solves the problem. ------------------------------------------ I agree with this in general, what I was pointing out was that with a further degree of parameterisation one can include the time dimension in the model, and end up with a set of constraints between temporal configurations. By the way have you published the results of your model yet? I have seen them, but most people on the list probably have not.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Nov 19 2003 - 00:00:01 EST