2000) “ What Kind of Theory is Marx’s Labour Theory of Value? A Critical Realist Inquiry”, Capital and Class 73

the nature of ‘theory ’ has often been neglected.1 Methodological questions such as ‘What kind of theory should the LTV be? ’ are hardly ever asked. This is a serious omission. If, as seems likely, substantive theory can be positively influenced by being rooted in an appropriate method or mode of theorisation then it can be negatively influenced by being rooted in an inappropriate mode. As a substantive theory, the Labour Theory of Value (LTV) is no different. Rooting the LTV in an inappropriate (deductivist) mode of theorisation has a negative influence in the sense that it encourages the formulation of (quantitative) versions of the LTV that (a) have severe problems and (b) lack explanatory power. Rooting the LTV in an appropriate (causal-explanatory) mode, by contrast, has a positive influence in the sense that it encourages the formulation of (qualitative) versions of the LTV that (a) lack such problems and (b) have explanatory power. The mode of theorisation one employs, therefore, has a strong influence upon the version of the LTV one ends up with