The Whiggish foundations of Marxian and Sraffian economics

摘要

The first half of the paper discusses what is wrong with Whig history and why it is wrong to distort the past. The author's views are compared with those of noted historians of economics. This discussion provides motivation for the second half of the paper, which focuses on Whiggish accounts of the scientifically progressive character of mainstream Marxian and Sraffian economics that rest heavily upon 'proofs' of internal inconsistency in Marx's own theories. The paper argues that the inconsistencies are actually products of Whiggish misinterpretation. Thus, it is not the case that progress has taken place through correction of error; mainstream Marxian and Sraffian theories are not corrections of the original theories, but alternatives to them.