The Problem of Foundations

Abstract

What is the content of the problem of foundations and its importance? We have seen that even the prototype of MTV —which is a quite idealized version of a capitalist economy— is interesting as a particular nonexistent artificial system in which the structure of the capitalist economy can be studied. I will discuss the scientific relevance of such systems in the chapter on the dialectical method. In the meantime, we can say that the simple economy studied in the previous chapter is useful because it sets the stage for our raising of certain questions which must be of interest to anybody interested in the real workings of modern market economies. The two most important of these are, clearly, whether the idealizing assumptions that define simple systems can be generalized in such a way that general laws can be formulated that obtain in those economies. In particular, is it possible to prove that a quantitative concept of value can be defined in more general structures? And what about the Law of Value? Is it possible to provide a more precise formulation of it, a formulation that can be shown to hold not only in the case of simple commodity production with equal composition of constant capital, but also in modern full-blown capitalist economies? These are the main foundational problems of MTV. The present chapter intends to give a detailed and rigorous formulation of them.