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Fri Mar 31 17:19:13 2006 |
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===================== HES POSTING ===================
I basically agree with Tony. My point was based on the one appearance of
the terms "value in use" in Smith. In that context, and only in that
context, he appears to me to be saying that utility means some kind of
objective usefulness which water has in abundance but diamonds do not. In
my view he is not talking about the same thing here that he talks about
in TMS under the heading of utility, nor is he talking about the same
thing he means by utility in other places in the Wealth. As Tony said he
brought up the idea and then set it aside. I think the lesson of this is
that this passage cannot be used to support the view that Smith ignored
subjective utility, or that he saw no role for demand in his price
theory. This, I think, is a confusion which arises from supposing that
just because he used the same form of words (value in use) as others who
meant by it subjective utility, that, therefore, he must have meant the
same thing by it. If my memory serves me correctly I believe that this
view can be found in Hollander's Econ of Adam Smith and in Meek's Studies
in the Labour Theory of Value.
Jeff Young
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