Economy for the Earth: The labour theory of value without the subject/object distinction

Abstract

This is a theoretical paper which applies feminist and ecological feminist critiques of the subject/object distinction in philosophy to Marx's labour theory of value. It argues that much of the use of Marx's political economy has been undermined by the centrality of the subject/object distinction in his theory. His deployment of this distinction led him to an exclusive emphasis on subjective human labour-power as the key factor in profit. The main part of the paper reworks Marx's value-theory without the subject/object distinction. Used this way, the paper argues, Marx's value theory becomes a theory of time and speed, in which nature overall is the source of value, and the time of natural reproduction is disregarded in the interests of profit. The paper contends that this reworking of the labour theory of value extends its explanatory force.