Economics, Value, Science

Marshall is both a pioneer in the Mathematization of Economics, and a strong proponent of Marginalism.  However, unlike his studies of the relations between Supply, Demand, and Price, his Marginalism is systematically independent of Mathematization, though some followers use Differential methods to represent Marginal Utility.  Regardless, the two have another theme in common--each serves as a response to a feature of Marxism.  First, the Mathematization of Economics is an attempt to transform the topic into a rigorous Science, thereby matching Marx-Engel's attribution of the same to their system.  Second, Marginal Utility attempts to detach Use-Value, and, thus, Price, and Profit, from Labor-Value, thereby undercutting the fundamental charge of Marxism against Capitalism--that the profit of the Capitalist is stolen from the Worker.  Now, while his concept of Conspicuous Consumption expresses Socialist sympathies, Veblen presents a third alternative to each of these two points of conflict.  First, as has been previously discussed, implicit in Conspicuous Consumption is a concept of Value that reduces to neither Labor- nor Use-: Ostentation-.  Second, Veblen is a proponent of neither Analytic nor Dialectical Science; rather, he is a Pragmatist, according to which the Truth of any system is determined experimentally by its effectiveness.  Thus, for example, the Pragmatist critique of American Capitalism is simply that there is no evidence of the effects of an Invisible Hand, e. g. a harmonization of the manifold of individual profit-seeking.  In turn, the Capitalist sensitivity to Pragmatist Experimentalism is expressed in the emphasis on its 'Laissez-Faire' aspect. Meanwhile, the Pragmatist rejection of Marxist dogmatism is articulated more directly--in a face-to-face debate between Dewey and Trotsky regarding the concept of History, also applicable to that of Economics.