Notes on Michio Morishima's Understanding of Marxian Economics

• Published in: World Review of Political Economy Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 280 - 301
• Main Author: Zhang, Xian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Pluto Journals 01.10.2019; 中国社会科学院马克思主义研究院; 世界政治经济学学会
• Subjects: Capitalism; Critical thinking; Economic aspects; Economic growth; Employment; Equilibrium; Exploitation; Input output analysis; Labor theory of value; Mathematics; Objectivity; Values; China; the logic of mathematics; critical thinking; formalization; Michio Morishima; Marxian economics; the logic of economics
• ISSN: 2042-891X; 2042-8928
• DOI: 10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.10.3.0280

Michio Morishima's recapitulation and study of Marxian economics by means of mathematical methods focus primarily on the typical themes such as the labor theory of value, the theory of exploitation, the transformation problem, the theory of reproduction and so on, which provides a new mathematical perspective for understanding Marxian economics. However, Morishima's understanding of Marxian economics is full of contradictions: on the one hand, he speaks highly of Marxian economics, believing that Marx has conducted pioneering work in and made innovative contributions to general equilibrium theory, dynamic general equilibrium theory, contemporary economic growth theory, input–output analysis and the dual dualities of commodity production society and the like important fields and front subjects of modern economics, in particular Morishima, employing mathematical methods, has proved the objectivity of values and the sufficiency and necessity of exploitation to capitalism; on the other hand, Morishima attempts to integrate Marxian economics into orthodox economics, and finally contends abandoning the labor theory of value, the theory of exploitation (the theory of surplus value) and the theory of the breakdown of capitalism. The work of Morishima shows that formalized Marxian economics must follow the logic of Marxian economics, otherwise, replacing the logic of economics with the logic of mathematics will lead to erroneous results.