The dialectics of differentiation: Marx’s mathematical manuscripts and their relation to his economics

Abstract: The notion that Marx neither understood nor advocated the use of mathematics is a persistent one. His interest in both commercial and abstract mathematics spanned more than two decades, however, and culminated in two \contributions " to the foundations of the calculus: \On the Concept of the Derived Function " (1881) and \On the Concept of the Dierential " (1881). A detailed examination of these and other technical notebooks suggests that Marx's economics both motivated and informed his studies in mathematics and that these, in turn, in uenced his understanding of economic phenomena. JEL Classication Numbers: A12, B14, C60 The Dialectics of Dierentiation: Marx's Mathematical Manuscripts and their Relation to his Economics* [Your paper on the derived function] has got such a hold over me that it not only keeps going round in my head all day, but last night I actually had a dream in which I gave a fellow my shirtbuttons to dierentiate and he made o with the lot