Objectivism, Relativism and the Importance of Rhetoric for Marxist Economics

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Abstract
The revolution in social thought which has taken place in anthropology, sociology, history, literature and even law has been squelched in economics by both neoclassicals and Marxists. It is the purpose of this essay to show that aspects of contemporary poststructuralist and feminist theory are considerably more compatible with Marxian and neo-Marxian theory than with neoclassical thought. More important, we argue that these poststructuralist and feminist approaches, and especially their implicit theory of the relation between the individual and society, can significantly enhance Marxian economic analysis of the production process and consumer behavior by creating a richer theory of individual behavior and by expanding the Marxian conception of institutions and thus of accumulation and reproduction.