'The Mystery of Human Mind': Theory and History in Sraffa|'IL MISTERO DELLA MENTE UMANA': TEORIA E STORIA NEL PENSIERO DI SRAFFA

Sraffa’s understanding of the relationship between history and economic theory is predicated on two distinct aspects, the historicity of economic theory and the economic-theoretical aspect of historical reality. Making use of Sraffa’s unpublished manuscripts and of the economic model proposed in Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, this article outlines the unitary articulation of these two aspects in Sraffa’s method- ological reflection. The presence of this methodological problematic in Sraffa’s writings is read in connection with both Gramsci’s polemic against the deterministic interpretations of historical materialism and with the polemic on method between the Austrian School of Economics and the Younger German Historical School.