Jean-Pierre Potier

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Piero Sraffa, Unorthodox Economist

Jean-Pierre Potier

Synopsis:

Piero Sraffa's work has given rise to a deep and lasting controversy in economic thought, yet we know surprisingly little about the man behind the theory. A friend of Gramsci, a colleague of Keynes and a correspondent of Wittgenstein, Piero Sraffa made important contributions to economics, politics and philosophy for over sixty years.

Piero Sraffa, Unorthodox Economist (1898-1983) details the rich and varied intellectual and political life of this key figure in economic theory. Jean-Pierre Potier traces the evolution of Sraffa from his student days, to his extended period as a librarian at Cambridge, to his political development in Italy where he was forced to flee Mussolini's regime. The book gives particular emphasis to Sraffa's relationship with Gramsci, detailing both their protracted and wide-ranging philosophical discussions and his central role in preserving The Prison Notebooks.

It is for his work in Cambridge that Sraffa is most widely known. TheCambridge he found was on the threshold of the Keynesian revolution, but the contributions he made transcended economics and were to influence Ramsey and Wittgenstein, among others. The book concludes with a discussion of Sraffa's masterworks, the edition of Ricardo's Collected Works, and Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities.

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Other editions: 2004, 2003, 2000, 1987, 1986