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Abstract
The relation between the ontological assumptions of Neoclassical theory and its predictive and explanatory failures have become a popular topic amongst its critics. Heterodox/Pluralist economists have been leading the charge against Neoclassical theory identifying its loss of history as the problem rendering it irrelevant for economic analysis. The problem with the various Heterodox critiques is that they a) do not appreciate the role of experience in grounding ontology and b) reduce the loss of history to a cognitive error on the part of the Neoclassical practitioner. To remedy this, four ontological approaches to economics are developed termed ontological atomism; ontological organicism; atomistically based organicism; and organically based atomism, which is Marx's ontological approach to the specification of capitalism. Ontological atomism and the atomic notion of experience underwrite Neoclassical economics. Ontological organicism and the organic notion of experience underwrite Marx's political economy. This study develops a Marxist critique of the ontological foundations of Neoclassical economics and develops an approach to Marxist political economy grounded upon adequate experiential and ontological foundations. This is accomplished by tracing the problems of Neoclassical theory back to their ontological foundations in logical and moral atomism and demonstrating how its ontology is responsible for the disappearance of the object and the subject of political economy. Through this critique Marx's organically based atomism is developed as an alternative to Neoclassical economics and used to criticize various problems of Neoclassical theory.
