A Reply to Professor Park’s Critique

Abstract

This paper replies to Cheol-Soo Park’s critique of the temporal single-system interpretation (TSSI) of Marx’s value theory. It argues that his negative evaluation of the TSSI largely stems from his failure to understand its purpose. He treats the TSSI as a distinct theory or “approach,” but it is actually an exegetical interpretation, and it must therefore be evaluated according to different criteria than those which he employs. Next, the paper argues that, contrary to what Park claims, the TSSI does not hold that commodities sell at their prices of production in each period, so his critique of that notion is inapplicable. Finally, the paper examines the case in which, according to the TSSI, surplus-value increases because the prices of non-wage goods rises. Park contends that this is an arbitrary and anomalous result, but the paper argues that the increase in surplus-value reflects a real phenomenon: workers are made relatively worse off by a rise in the prices of non-wage goods.