ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the logical structure of the Sraffian theory of value. Perhaps the most interesting and relevant methodological considerations in economics are related to the production of empirical claims within a given disciplinary matrix – to use H. W. Kuhn’s term. The application of the conceptual framework of an economic theory to a real phenomenon, agent or structure requires the fleshing out of the terms, by means of empirical information. The determination of the values is the substance of the Sraffian “normal science”, which of course does not consist of proposing abstract assumptions in order to mathematically derive existence theorems. The prices of several jointly produced commodities in a ‘capital-intensive’ process may move in different directions relatively to those of other commodities jointly produced by a ‘labour-intensive process’. P. Sraffa thought that, given an empirical description of a productive structure, it was possible to find a system that satisfies fundamental law.
