A Comment on Sen’s ‘Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci’.docVIP

A Comment on Sen’s ‘Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci’ Ajit Sinha* Introduction There has been a revival of interest in the nature of Sraffa’s work after the opening of Sraffa’s unpublished papers to the public at the Wren Library. Even though Sraffa was quite reticent about writing down his philosophical ideas on paper and communicating the nature of his influence on Wittgenstein, a reading of his notes and a perusal of his library leave a strong impression of the philosophical sophistication of his mind. It is important that Sraffa’s contribution to economics, particularly the Production of Commodities, is not only seen as a contribution to economic theory but also as an application of a philosophical position to economics. In this context Sen’s recent contribution (Sen 2003) is most welcome. Though I agree with Sen on some important points, I find his explanation of the nature of Sraffa’s contribution in the Production of Commodities and his account of the nature of Gramsci’s influence, via Sraffa, on Wittgenstein not entirely convincing. In this paper I intend to critically engage with Sen’s recent important contribution with an intention to deepen the understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of Sraffa’s book. Sen on Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci Sen’s paper (2003) has two projects: (1) to interpret the nature of Sraffa’s contribution, particularly in the Production of Commodities, in the light of his philosophy, and (2) to trace Gramsci’s influence on the later Wittgenstein via Sraffa. He takes up the second issue first in order to establish the nature of Sraffa’s philosophical position. He briefly narrates an interesting account of his conversations with Sraffa that he had had between 1958 and 1963. Apparently Sraffa did not think much of his influence on Wittgenstein even though they had regular conversations for more than ten years, which, according to Wittgenstein, provided the “most consequential ideas” for his Philosophical Investigations. Se