Methodological Dualism and the Microfoundations of Marx's Economic Theory.

In this paper, we argue that in his economic theory Marx employs an unconventional form of analytical reductionism in which the single commodity, rather than the individual agent, is taken as the point of departure, and that, through the interplay of the accounts of value and money around the notion of dualism given in the development of the commodity, Marx provides a unified account of the structural and behavioral aspects of economic relations generally, and of prices in particular. We also suggest that this understanding of Marx's methodological dualism, and his dialectical approach to reductionism, enables us to gain a new insight into the price-theoretic structure of Capital. (c) 1996 Academic Press Limited Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.