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Cambridge Journal of Economics Advance Access originally published online on August 6, 2007
Cambridge Journal of Economics 2008 32(1):125-146; doi:10.1093/cje/bem017
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved.

A materialist development of some recent contributions to the labour theory of value

Andrew Brown*

* University of Leeds, UK

Address for Correspondence: Economics Division, Maurice Keyworth Building, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT; email: andrew{at}lubs.leeds.ac.uk

The paper offers a novel interpretation and affirmation of the opening arguments of Capital, answering the fundamental but neglected question of why labour is the substance of value. Marx's arguments require that two philosophical threads, often separated in the literature on value, be woven together. The argument that value is the intrinsic ‘content’ making commodities exchangeable employs the thread of realism. The argument that abstract labour is the emergent ‘social substance’ of value employs the thread of dialectics. This interpretation develops the materialist and dialectical philosophy of E.V. Ilyenkov and deepens the approach to value theory initiated by Ben Fine.

Key Words: Capitalism • Dialectics • Labour theory of value • Marxism • Realism

JEL classifications: A12, B14, B40, B51

Manuscript received April 27, 2006; final version received January 24, 2007.


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