Sraffa and Wittgenstein: Physicalism and constructivism

Abstract

After a brief review of facts and hypotheses concerning Piero Sraffa's intellectual exchanges with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and their content, a brief presentation of some of the basic ideas of Productions of Commodities by Means of Commodities is given, on the basis of which I argue, first, that Sraffa's ‘objectivism’ in economics is closely related to the ‘physicalism’ towards which Wittgenstein moved soon after his return to Cambridge and, secondly, that the mathematics of that book are in line with Wittgenstein's constructivist stance, as it is already found in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

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