This crucial point of method is mentioned in Chapter 1.
1. Is the main determinant of any economic exchange value, or price, always the same?
To detect this, a method is necessary: throughout an investigation of the formation of prices of each homogeneous category of commodities, postulate that this is not the case, even if it means having to conclude that the formation of all prices is the same determinant.
2. If all prices have in common that they are only exchange values, then there are no other primordial realities to be retained in the economic theory of value than those described in this chapter.
The primary and elementary commodities are provided by the worker in exchange for remuneration for his or her service. The other basic commodity is provided by the saver in exchange for the remuneration for his or her service. The prosperity and quality of life of a population and of each of its individuals depend very much on the quantity and quality of the labor and savings placements of its members.
3. The labor of human beings is the general fact to which it seems most realistic, the most objective and the most necessary to associate money, and more broadly with economic life.
In many words and behaviors, money is not associated with human's labor or is very weakly associated. Every sum of money is nevertheless a purchasing power which is the product of the old and new labor of humans. There is nothing ideological about it, in the pejorative sense of this adjective.
4. Which economic mentality best provides for the improvement of the quality of life?
Is it the one that puts the most emphasis on the subjective, or objective, determinants of economic exchange values? Which option favors both seriousness in the management of public affairs and the longevity and other qualities of manufactured products? Would the political skepticism of the electorate be what it has become if the current answers to the two previous questions were different from what they are?