The marginalist revolution of the late nineteenth century consolidated what Karl Marx and Piero Sraffa called 'vulgar economy', bringing with it an emphasis on a scarcity theory that replaced the classical surplus theory. However, the classical political economy of Adam Smith and David Ricardo has been revived within the Cambridge economic tradition. This book looks at how different branches of the Cambridge economic tradition have focused on various aspects of this revival over time.

Nuno Martins is Lecturer in Economics at the University of the Azores, Portugal. He is also a member of the Centro de Estudos em Gestão e Economia at UCP-Porto, and of the Cambridge Social Ontology Group.

Foreword by G. C. Harcourt Preface Part I: Economic Theory 1. The Theory of Value and Distribution 2. The Ontology of Value and Distribution 3. The Accumulation of Capital 4. The Principle of Effective Demand 5. Mathematics and Reality Part II: Social Theory 6. Rational Fools 7. Social Ontology 8. Heterodox Economics as Surplus Theory 9. Platonism and Cambridge 10. Evolutionary Social Theory 11. History and Evolution Part III: Ethical Theory 12. Uncertainty and Ethical Analysis 13. Justice and the Capability Approach 14. Ontology and Moral Realism 15. Capabilities as Primary (Causal) Powers