Don't treat too ill my Piero! Interpreting Sraffa's papers

摘要

In this comment I scrutinise critically some of the views put forward in this Special Issue on Sraffa's research programme, his accomplishments, and the relationship of his analysis to the analyses of Petty, the physiocrats, Adam Smith, Ricardo and Marx. A special concern is with the role of the sciences in the elaboration of Sraffa's systems of equations. The emphasis is on precautions that ought to be taken in order not to misinterpret Sraffa's papers, or his objectivist orientation, and on what I consider to be obvious misunderstandings and misconceptions in the literature.