Rhetoric and substance in value theory: An appraisal of the new orthodox Marxism

A recent trend among Marxist economists tries to vindicate Marx, in opposit ion to criticism from mainstream economics and to developments in what may be called the mainstream of Marxist theory in the 20th century. It does thi s, however, by insisting on the literal truth of Marx's formulations, espec ially in Volume III of Capital. Well-known difficulties with these formulat ions are countered by resort to a "temporal" interpretation, in which input s and outputs are differently time-dated. This, however, reduces either to the abandonment of theory altogether, or to replication of firmly establish ed results in value theory. While temporal dynamics contributes to our unde rstanding of both value formation and capitalist accumulation, no good purp ose is served by a fundamentalist orientation, argument by appeal to textua l authority, and denigration of the achievements in Marxist economics in th e time since Marx wrote.