My apologies for the absence of the source; it was JEL, the most recent issue.
E. Ahmet Tonak wrote:
I just finished reading the following fascinating article by Sen. As the abstract suggests two distinct issues were discussed. I disagree with the view that they are interrelated as presented by Sen. Though in reality they might. Regarding the first issue there are two sub issues: The first has to do with Sraffa's "pivotal influence on Wittgenstein" which was already well-established, admitted by Wittgenstein himself and explored by his biographers. Sen himself also says this in the article. Hence, there is nothing new in this regard. The second sub-issue would have been a very interesting area to explore. In my view, what Sen suggests regarding Sraffa's "education" in "the activist political circle in Italy (clustered around the journal L'Ordine Nuovo)" is very speculative, broad, too general and does not go beyond again what is already well-known --there was a deep friendship between Sraffa and Gramsci and Gramsci was interested in everything, including those philosophical, anthropological and linguistic issues, which Sen discusses in this piece. My point is that the "Gramsci connection" to our understanding of Sraffa-Wittgenstein interaction was not well-grounded. Having said this, I found Sen's insights to and formulations of "the influence of Sraffa's philosophical views on his economics" and the way Sraffa challanged the mainstream economic theory (beyond what is generally accepted by heterodox economists) very interesting and crisp. Especially, those parts of Sen's discussion based on his personal relations/observations at Cambridge and unpublished material (Sraffa's and Dobb's letters) are revealing in terms of what really these giants were thinking/worrying about. There are also research programmatic suggestive ideas in this second part of the essay, e.g. exploring the possibility of "combining" labor and utility based value theories. And many other insights and the facts of intellectual history. I recommend it.
Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci Amartya Sen
Two distinct but interrelated issues are investigated here. The first concerns Sraffa's critical role in contemporary philosophy through his pivotal influence on Wittgenstein. The intellectual origins of this profound influence can be traced to the philosophical interests of the activist political circle in Italy (clustered around the journal L'Ordine Nuovo) to which both Sraffa and Antonio Gramsci belonged. The second inquiry concerns the influence of Sraffa's philosophical views on his economics. Sraffa's economic contributions can be much better understood by paying attention to the way Sraffa changed the nature of the questions asked, rather than seeking different answers to already established questions.
