Marx and Mathematics PDF

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Marx and Mathematics Author(s): Dirk J. Struik Source: Science & Society, Vol. 12, No. 1, A Centenary of Marxism (Winter, 1948), pp. 181-196 Published by: Guilford Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40399882 . Accessed: 27/03/2014 17:42
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MARX AND MATHEMATICS

DIRK J. STRUIK at the Gymreceivedhis early trainingin mathematics nasium of Trier (Trves), the Rhineland citywherehe was born. At his graduation,in 1835, his knowledgeof mathematics was consideredadequate. This means that he startedhis career with some knowledgeof elementary arithmetic, algebra to the quadratic He also and and solid geometry. may have had trigoplane equations, and calculus. and a little higher algebra, analyticalgeometry nometry, in mathematics There are no indicationsthat he showedany interest during the turbulentyears before and after 1848, in which he and token that Marx Engels developed theiroutlook on the world. The first is fromthe period in whichhe to his studyof mathematics had returned had settledin London and was workingon his great scientific projects. In a letter to Engels of Jan. 11, 1858,1he wrote: During the elaboration of the economic principlesI have been so thatout of despairI undertook damned delayedby computationalerrors was alwaysalien to me. again a quick scanningof the algebra.Arithmetic Via the algebraicdetour,however,I catch up quickly. From this period until his death in 1883 Marx showed continued oftenreturning to it as a diversion in the studyof mathematics, interest illness. of during his many days His study of algebra was followed by that of analytical geometry and the calculus. In a letter to Engels of July 6, 1863 he reported progress: and integralcalculus. Apropos! In my spare time I do differential I have plentyof books on it and I will send you one if you like to tackle for your military studies.It is that field.I considerit almost necessary also a much easier part of mathematics(as far as the purely technical side is concerned)than for instance the higher parts of algebra. Aside no stuff from knowledgeof the common algebraic and trigonometric conic the with is needed general acquaintance except study preparatory sections.2 that Marx found algebra easier than arithmetic It seems therefore and the calculus easier than algebra. But he was not so much interested drawn to the age-old in the techniqueof the calculus. He was irresistibly
l Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe (Berlin, 1930), Abt. Ill, Bd. 11,p. 273. 2 Ibtd., ni, p. 14g.
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of the calculus,the moreso sincein the questionof the foundation books he consulted which this in a most wastreated unsatisfactory subject in a controversial and occasionally way.Marx,like so manydialectical in the beforeand afterhim, found unendingfascination thinkers as is shown and the differential, of the derivative different definitions whichwas foundamonghis material of manuscript by a largeamount papers. In the yearsafter1870Marx even triedto develophis own views. to the secondvolumeof on thisphase in the preface Engelsreports Capital: The due to sickness. set in again,mainly After 1870an intermission of of thisperiodconsists notebooks of themany content withabstracts Russianagrarian and especially American relations, money, agronomy, and naturalscience, and finally and banking market geology systems, mathematical and papers.8 independent physiology, especially conin Marx, the laterdaysof his life,castsomeof his reflections form and a readable calculusinto the differential dispatched cerning thatEngels of August18, 1881shows A letter to Engels. themanuscript had studiedthem: I foundat last the courageto studyyourmathematical Yesterday and I was glad to see to textbooks, reference even manuscripts without The matter I compliment thatI did notneed them. youon yourwork. that we cannotbe amazedenough clear (sonnenklar) is so perfectly it.4 insist how the mathematicians upon mystifying in his own wordsand Marx' viewpoint to present Engelscontinues withwhichbothhe and Marx were it withHegel'sviews, to compare familiar. He endswiththewords: thoroughly around has taken sucha holdofme thatit notonlyturns The matter in myhead thewholeday,but thatalso last weekin a dreamI gave ran awaywith and thisfellow to differentiate buttons a fellow myshirt them[und diesermirdamitdurchbrannte]* withhis wife'ssicknessMarx,who at thattimewas preoccupied did not,it seems, return to the of thesameyearshe died in December his in When, however, Engelsrecorrespondence. subsequent subject letters between an of on to Marx 21, exchange (November 1882) ported of Marx'mathematical Sam Mooreon thesubject friend himand their
S Capital (Chicago, 1919), u, p. 10. 4 Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe,Abt. Ill, Bd. iv, p. 513. BIbid., p. 514.
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theories,Marx made a prompt reply the next day. We returnto this later in this article. correspondence Marx died beforehe could add anythingmore to his ideas. Engels later thoughtof publishing Marx' mathematicalmanuscriptstogether with his own on the dialectics of nature. In the prefaceto the second edition of the Anti-Dhring (1885) he mentions his own studies in mathematicsand the natural sciences,and adds that he had to discontinue them afterthe death of Marx. He concludes: "there will perhaps later be an opportunityto collect and to publish the obtained and veryimportant, with the posthumous, results,together manuscripts of Marx."6 Engels did not findthe time to accomplishthiswork,and the papers of Marx and Engels dealing with the exact sciences remained in the archives.The German Social Democrats,who inheritedthe papers of Marx and Engels,wereunable to appreciatethedialecticsof mathematics, Understandinghad to wait until the Russians physicsand chemistry. of Marx' and Engels*philofundamental the to show importance began and Materialism (1908) was a Empirio-criticism sophical work. Lenin's Russian of outside known trail blazer, but it did not become strictly revolution of 1917. circlesuntilit was publishedin German,long afterthe Later the Russians published Engels' Dialectics of Nature; firstin Russian, then (1927) in the original German. Both Lenin's and Engels' books are now available in English,Lenin's of 1940. of 1927,Engels' in a translation in a translation of Marx' mathematical Still later some of the most characteristic Our were published, but only in a Russian translation.7 manuscripts It is be to the Russians. on based is the hoped papers publishedby study that all of his mathematicalnote books will eventuallybe published, not only in Russian, but also in the original German.
6 Antt-Dhring (New York,1939),p. 17. of iMarksiimi Estestvoznanie 1933).The Russiantranslation (Moscow:Partisdat, S. Ianovskaia, themanuscripts by . Kolman, by articles p. 5-61;it is followed occupies The originalGermantextof the manuscript H. J. Mllerand others. D. J. Struik, has not, as far as I know,been published, thoughthereseem to have been plans; in 1935 see Unterdem Bannerdes Marxismus(1935),no. 9, p. 104,n. 1. I received manumathematical the of text German of the a typewritten published original copy in the present and the quotations in Moscow, Institute fromthe Marx-Engels scripts fromthis text. articleare translated of the900pagesof Marx mathecharacter 8 The information thegeneral concerning "O Matematicheskich is takenfromS. Ianovskaia, maticalmanuscript Rukopisiakh at theCrossRoads (London,1931). Science See also E. Colman, K. Marksa," p. 136-180.
P. 133-135.
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The extent of Marx' interestin mathematics is shown by the fact that the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute in Moscow has obtained, since 1925, photographiccopies of about 900 pages of Marx' mathematical all of which have been deciphered and put in order.8 manuscripts, studied by Marx, often of textbooks, of abstracts consist They essentially accounts of special subjects,and of indewith notes; of comprehensive different stagesin Marx' studies,from expressing pendent investigations, to finished sketches manuscripts probably prepared for the preliminary are devoted benefitof Engels. Only a few pages, hardly twenty-four, to computational work. deal with algebra, By far the most voluminousof thesemanuscripts and which Marx studied fromLacroix', Maclaurin's perhaps fromother texts. Most of this algebra deals with the solution of equations of in series,notablydiverhigherdegree,but Marx also showedan interest gent series. There are also abstractsdealing with analytic geometry, notablyfroma book by Hymers. Other manuscriptscontain Marx' reflectionson the differential accalculus. There are again plenty of abstractsand comprehensive counts based on the textbooksof Lacroix, Boucharlat and Hind, supplemented by those of Hall and Hemming, all popular school texts This workdeals mainly fromthe earlydecades of the nineteenth century. and of series,of limit and of derivative, with the conceptionof function of maxima the seriesof Taylor and Maclaurin, and the determination and minima. Marx showed particular interestin Lagrange's famous use of the Taylor seriesfor the "algebraic" foundationof the calculus, of the derivativeand the difdefinitions and compared the different of his own notes,reproduces in one in the various texts.Marx, ferential from the derivationof the binomial theorem Taylor's theorem,and derivesTaylor's theoremfrom that "Lagrange,on the contrary, remarks a fact which he oftenrepeats and to which he the binomial theorem," One of his manuscript devotessome thought. papers is entitled"A someon purelyalgebraicbase of Taylor's theorem what modified development according to Lagrange,"9 others have such significantheadings as: thealgebraiclanguage from is based on the translation "Taylor's theoremof the binomial theoreminto the differential way of expression,"and fromthe algebraiclanguage is also only translation "Maclaurin'stheorem into the differential of the binomial theorem language." Two notebooks,
"Nach Lagrange somewhat modified Entwicklung des Taylorschen Theorems auf bloss algebraischerGrundlage."
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probablydating froma later period in Marx*life, contain examples of as well the methodof differentiation which Marx eventuallypreferred, as a paper on the differential and a historicalsketchof the methodsof differentiation used by Newton, Leibniz, D'Alembert and Lagrange. These notebookspresentthe positionwhich Marx seems to have placed beforeEngels. They also contain a long paper on the integralcalculus, whichcontainsa criticalanalysisof Newton's "Analysisper aequationes Their published contentsformthe subnumero terminorum infinitas." of article. the present ject Marx studied the calculus from textbookswhich were all written tinder the direct.influenceof the great mathematiciansof the late and the eighteenth seventeenth centuries, notably of Newton, Leibniz, in the Euler, D'Alembertand Lagrange. He was not so much interested basic as in the and of differentiation integration principles technique on whichthecalculus is built,thatis, in theway the notionsof derivative are introduced.He soon found out that a considerable and differential of opinion existedamong the the leading authorsconcerning difference of opinion often accompanied by these basic principles,a difference in the school textbooks written increased This confusion confusion. only answers on such Different were authors.11 minor the given questions by or vice versa, as whetherthe derivative is based on the differential small and tendingto zero, is small and constant, the differential whether or absolutelyzero, etc. Marx felt the challenge offered by a problem of keenest minds of the the some which had attracted past and which dialectical the dealt with the veryheart of process,namely the nature answer in the books, he tried to of change. Not findingany satisfying reach an answer for himselfin his own typical way: by going to the sources, comparing the results, and forgingbeyond them into new regions.It mayperhapsstrikethe reader that among the sourcesstudied to AugustinCauchy-at any rate by Marx thereseemsto be no reference as faras we can judge fromthe publishedmaterial.Cauchy'swork,which underliesthe expositionof the foundationof the calculus in our present could have been available to Marx.12The reason that day textbooks, Marx took no notice of Cauchy may be that Cauchy's ideas only slowly so that theymighthave escaped Marx, who penetratedinto textbooks,
11A good survey of the various theories is given by F. Cajori, "Grafting of the Theory of Limits on the Calculus of Leibniz," Am. Math. Monthly, xxx (1923), P. 223-34. calcul infinitsimal(Paris, 1823).
12A. Cauchy,Rsum des leons donnesa l Ecole Royale Polytechnique sur le
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did notmoveamong reason mathematicians.18 A morelikely professional is thatCauchy's thatof the derivative was essentially way of defining a newone. so thatMarxdid notconsider his method D'Alembert, his feeling reasons Whatever Marx* wereto ignoreCauchy's work, was shared of dissatisfaction withthewaythe calculuswas introduced of his day. mathematicians by someof theleadingyounger professional ofmathematics, hisstudy In thesameyear(1858)in which Marxresumed in hiscase while Richard Dedekind at Zrich similar felt dissatisfaction, thatin his lesfirst stated in he the calculus. teaching Writing 1872, of a evidence to explainthenotion to geometrical sonshe had recourse limit;thenhe wenton: can calculus But thatthisform into thedifferential of introduction this Formyself noclaimtobeing no onewilldeny. make scientific, feeling to resolve thatI made the fixed of dissatisfaction was so overpowering arithmetic find a I should on till the meditating question purely keep of infinitesimal for the principles foundation ana perfectly rigorous calculus.14 of to theconception to a newaxiomatic This led Dedekind approach wasone ofthegreat and irrational which continuum number, pioneering Someyears of mathematics. in whatwe call the arithmetization efforts of rigorin matheof the new methods laterone of theotherpioneers exclaimed: Paul Du Bois Reymond, matics, in its published would deny that-especially What mathematician the conception of limitand its closest the conception formassociates, theirrational, theinfinitely ofthelimitless, small, largeand theinfinitely in writand wordis used to hurry The teacher etc.,still lack rigor? entrance to analysis, in orderto roam thisquestionable through quickly on thewellblazedroadsof thecalculus.15 Uiemorecomfortably of thenineteenth underthe It wasnotuntilthelastdecades century, and Du BoisReymond, and as wellofWeierstrass ofDedekind influenc of the of the calculus Cantorthatthe thorough overhauling principles
13 The preface to the sixth edition of Boucharlat's book (1856), which Marx consulted, though mentioning in detail the work of Newton, Leibniz, D'Alembert and Lagrange, is silent about Cauchy. One of the firstwidely used textbooks which explicitly used Cauchy's methods was C. Jordan, Cours d'analyse, which appeared in 1882. MR, Dedekind, Stetigkeitund Irrationalzahlen (1872). Translated in "Essays on the Theory of Numbers" (Chicago, 1901), p. 1 f. 15 P. Du Bois Reymond, Die allgemeine Funktionentheorie,i. (1882), p. 2. The author was the brother of the physiologistEmil, who framed the slogan of agnosticism: "Ignorabimus."
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tookplacewhich that andhasshown underlies modern methods, Cauchy's influence to can lead to full late work too This approach rigor. appeared Marx and Engels.16 The result on thefoundais thatMarx'reflections tionsof the calculusmustbe appreciated of eighteenth as a criticism methods. We feel that his however work, century developedcontemof but with of the leadingmathematicians poraneously independently to the now contributes thesecondhalfof thenineteenth even century, of themeaning of the calculus. understanding his We shouldneverforget, of course, thatMarx neverpublished that he intended and is an that not even indication there material, pubeventhough lication, Engelsseemsto have playedwiththe idea. Marx in sparehours,forrelaxation, oftenin hours worked on mathematics of sickness, guidedby somebookswhichhe happenedto have in his of difthe principles whichintroduced such as Boucharlat's, library, in the in an unsatisfactory ferentiation way.He lookedforelucidation to Newhim led and which in Boucharlat similar sources books, quoted His noteswere in the first and Lagrange. D'Alembert ton,Leibnitz, in after forhis own clarification, readingthoseclassics place intended unsatisfacStruck the texts. often obscure understand the to by attempts in thesebooks,he tried in characteristic way to toryformulations himself. for difficulties out the straighten as real are at present whichMarx triedto overcome The difficulties is more elaborated evenifour formal as in histime, carefully apparatus These difficulties are as old as Zeno of Elea and practically foolproof. or physiological to and as youngas the latestphilosophical attempt and howmotion can lead to howrestcan passintomotion, understand so carefully the conception rest.This is the reasonwhyMarx studied and the relatedconception of the diof a function of the derivative main methods which these are three that there found He ferential. by called them the Marx classified have been them, developed. conceptions method with and the the rational the (connected algebraic mystical, and D'Alembert and namesof Newton-Leibnitz, Lagrange respectively), the derivative, thenopposedto themhis own mode of understanding in general. Let us explainthedifficulty and thecalculus thedifferential, the function wayscriticized y=x8 in thedifferent by by differentiating Marx.
information on thework l It is evendoubtful of thegreatGerman if anypertinent reached Marxand Engels. of thesecondhalfof thenineteenth mathematicians century as wellas physics of their The England capitalism, place to study dayswas an excellent in mathematics, but it was backward and biology, and chemistry exceptin somespeand algebra. of geometry cializedbranches
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- x changes 1) Newton-Leibnitz* ("The mystical calculus").17 differential into x + xt in Newton,into x + dx in Leibnitz;we followLeibnitz.Then y changesintoni=j> + dyand yi =y + dy- (x + dx)*- x*+ 3x2dx + 3x (dx)*+ (dx)*. as comparedwith3x2dx, Since (*)2 and (dx)*are infinitesimal theymay formula be dropped,and we obtainthe correct dy 3x2dx. does not disappearif we first and the mystery This is highlymysterious, dividedyby dx = 3x2+ 3xdx+ (dx)2 dy/dx formula and thenlet h = dx be zero. It is truethatwe obtainthe right but as Marx remarks: here derivedfunction, ofAis not permitted beforethe first thenullification hence(y' - y)/h = 3*2 h by division, from thefactor 3x' has been liberated The difference. the finite + 3xh+ h2.Only thencan we annul (aufheben) = 3x2 must therefore be dealso originally coefficient differential dy/dx we can obtainthedifferential dy= 3x2dx. velopedbefore we knewin advance whattheanswermustbe, and build In otherwords, up some reasoningto make it plausible. It was this loose way in which founded thecalculuswhichled BishopBerkeley Newtonand Leibnitzusually thedx in of criticism TheAnalysts 1734. Here he askedwhether to hisfamous conand are zero or not zero, called them"ghostsof departedquantities" reasoncould who believedtheseabsurdities cluded thatno mathematician tenetsof religion.It has not been the only ably object to the miraculous in science have been exploitedfor difficulties case in which foundation idealistand obscurantist reasons. Mathematicians feltthe difficulty and triedto cope withit by suggesting moreexact waysof founding the calculus.18 contribuThe mostimportant tionswerethoseofD'Alembertand Lagrange. In Marx' words: ("The rational 2) D'Alembert calculus").19 differential D'Alembertstarts from the starting directly pointof Newtonand Leibnitz xi = x + dx but he makes immediately the fundamental correction xi = x + Ax,that
17Leibnitz issued his first publication on the calculus in 1684, Newton his in 1693. 18See e.g. F. Cajori, A History theConceptions Limitand Fluxionin GreatBritain of of from to Woodhouse Newton (Chicago and London, 1919). 19D'Alembert on "Diffrentiel"in Diderot's (1754) Encyclopdie
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which Axbecomes an undetermined, but primafaciefinite increment, means, he calls A. The transformation of thisA or Ax intodx (he used the Leibnitz of thedeveloplikeall Frenchmen) is onlyfoundas thelast result notation, while it ment or at least just beforeclosinghour (knappvor Tor schiusi), calculus: of the initiators and the the with appears as starting mystics point h A xi - x Now, by placing h = o, the expression|/(x + A) - f(x)j/h changes h into-J:
muchakinto Cauchy's is very differentiates The wayin whichD' Alembert withCauchy We writeat present method. dy lim /(* + A) -/(*). A dx h+o the correct, Marx' objectionto this methodis that thoughit is formally difbefore in x2 3xh that 3 is + + is, A2, already present (x) derivative/ termof a sum, 3 x2+ 2 xh+ A2,and It is simplythe first ferentiation. in devisinga way in which to get rid D'Alembert'smethodonlyconsists 3 x2.Marx calls this of the sum whichfollows of the member(or members) be Entwicklung should method correct the while (separation); Loswicklung (development): is the same as in Leibnitzand Newton,but the therefore The derivation its further from is in strictly derivative algebraicway separated ready-made of the/'(*), here 3x221 but a separation There is no development context.20 memwhichappear nextto it in theother Aand themembers itsfactor from on in rankand file.What has reallybeen developedis theleft bersmarching differential hand symbolic side,namelydx,dyand theirratio,the symbolic = in its which other in the or coefficient o/o dy/dx), way (rather dy/dx o/o some metaphysical shudders, turnagain provoked thoughthe symbolwas derived. D'Alembert had, by strippingthe differential mathematically itsmystical calculusfrom stepahead. garb,made an enormous workas "an enormous ofD'Alembert's Marx' evaluation stepahead" still ofmathehistorians sinceevenmodern stands.This is themoreremarkable, to Lagrange. overit. Marx nextproceeds maticshave a way of glossing
3) calculus"). Lagrange (" lhe purely algebraic differential
:--*-/
= *+ 3*2* + A' + 3*A *-(* + h)%

10"losgewickeltvon ihremsonstigenZusammenhang." 11"Es ist keine Entwicklung, sonderneine Loswickimg des/ (*)."
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defines thecoefficient ofAas thederivative: Lagrangesimply fora general /(x): by Taylor'stheorem j = /'(*) = 3x2,or moregenerally ax
Marx thenparaphrases Lagrange'smethodin thewords:
= f{x + dh + g + . . . + h)-, (or/*) yx
In the first method(1), as well as in the rationalone (2), the required and can is fabricated real coefficient readymade by the binomialtheorem hencein the term be foundalreadyas secondtermof the seriesexpansion, differential be containsA1.The whole further whichnecessarily procedure, shed the it as in (1) or be it as in (2), is therefore luxury.Let us therefore the binomialexpansionthat uselessballast.We knowonce and forall from is thefactor etc. These ofA,thesecondone thatofA1, thefirst real coefficient are nothing but the derived coefficients real differential functions ofthe original . . . The wholereal problem in succession in x, expandedbinomially function of methods(algebraicones) of expandingall to the finding reduceditself of x + A into integralascendingpowersof A, whichin kindsof functions u Up of operations. without greatprolixity many cases cannot be effected in Lagrange,but what can be founddirectly to now thereappears nothing method(since thisalso includesthe wholedevelopment from D'Alembert's of themystics). whichMarx raisedagainsttheclassicalwriters was thatall The objection had before the of four thederivative alreadyprepared process differentiation whichactuallyfolowed theprocess of reallybegins.Marx wanteda method variation of the variableand in thisprocessitself defined the derivative as in whichcase it can be endowedwitha new symbol The deriva-, o/oy dy/dx. ofdifferentiation, notbe protive,he claimed,shouldbe derivedby a process duced from the beginning by the binomialtheorem. we startfalsely Whether fromx + dx or correctly fromx + A, if we subthisundetermined stitute binomialintothe givenalgebraicfunction ofx,we ofx1,and changeit intoa binomialofa definite degree, e.g. (x + A)1instead thisin a binomialin whichin one case dxy in theothercase A,figures as its Hence it also figures last member. in the expansiononly as a factor, with whichthefunctions, derivedfrom the binomial, are externally affected.21 This lack of internal can be avoided in the methodwhich development Marx suggests, say for^ = xs:
j, -/()-, - J> - * - * - (*i - *) M + **i + x') /(*i) -/(*) - J>i
fMjzM . ym . 4 + XXl +A - X X' X' - X
MWe now know that oftenit cannot be done at all, but thisrequiresan extensionof the functional conceptionbeyond Lagrange's horizon.
MARX AND MATHEMATICS Whenx = x', or x - x' = o, we obtain:
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+ + -sss^ssx2 o dx In thismethod, writes a preliminary Marx,we obtainfirst derivative, namely x2+ xxi + x2, and this passes by x = x' into the definite derivative. This i* x' to x does away withany "infinitesimal" passingfrom approximation, is actuallyo/o,obtainedwhen xi - x is actually showsthat the derivative zero: Here we see in striking form: to obtain the derivative we must place x' = *, hence x' - x = o Firstly; in thestrict mathematical without a traceof only infinitesimal sense, approximation. Secondly: Throughthe factthatx' has been placed = *, hence x' - x = o, entersinto the "derivative."The quantityx', originally nothing symbolic introduced of *, does not disappear, it is onlyreduced to its by the variation minimalboundaryx. It remainsan elementintroduced as new into the whichby itscombination withitself, withthe function, original partly partly x of the originalfunction that is the producesat the end the "derivative," "derivative" reducedto itsminimum value. preliminary = 3x2)occurs . . . The transcendental or symbolic accident(o/o = dx/dy on the left hand but it has lost its as it side, already terror, appearsnow only of a processthatalreadyhas shownits real content only as the expression on theright hand side of theequation.24 At themoment thatx' = x thequotient /Axbecomes0/0.Since in this Ay of trace its and of its it 0/0every expression origin meaninghas disappeared is replacedby the symboldy/dx, in whichthe finite differences and A* Ay
xx
x2ss3x2m
At thismoment differences. and thedifferential algebradisappears calculus, whichoperates withthesymbols dy/dx, begins. In orderto understand Marx' intentions we translate herepartof better, theletter whichEngelswrotehimAugust18, 1881,after he had read Marx' manuscript: When we say thatin y = f(x) the x and y are variables,thenthisis, as without all further long as we do not move on, a contention consequences, and x andy stillare, pro tempore, constants in fact.Only whentheyreally the change,thatis inside function, theybecomevariablesin fact.Only in that - notofboth fortherelation case is it possible as such,but oftheir quantities - whichstillis hidden in the variability originalequation,to reveal itself.
28"nur als Faktor, womit die durch das Binom abgeleiteten Funktionen usserlich behaftetsind." *4"Das transzendentaleoder symbolische Unglck ereignet sich nur auf der linken Seite, hat aber seine Schreckenbereitsverloren,da es nun als Ausdruck eines Prozesses erscheint,der, seinen wirklichenGehalt bereits auf der rechten Seite der Gleichung bewhrthat."
or vanished appear in symbolical formas liquidated (aufgehobene) (verschwundene)
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as it occursin thecourseofthe derivative The first /Axshowsthisrelation Ay shows real change,thatis in everygiven change; the finalderivative dy/dx to everyAy/ it in its generality, Ax, dy/dx pure. Hence we can come from whilethisitself /Ax)onlycoversthe specialcase. However,to pass from (Ay thespecialcase has to be liquidated thespecialcase to thegeneral relationship has passed as such (als solcher Hence, afterthe function werden). aufgehoben to xf all its xr from x with can be quietly the consequences, process through allowedto becomex again,it is no longertheold x, whichwas onlyvariable and the result of the changererealchange, in name, it has passed through have claimedfor what manymathematicians We see hereat last clearly, rationalreasonsforit, that the a long time,without being able to present thedifferentials dx and dyare derived. is theoriginal, derivative
wirsie selbst wieder mains, even ifwe liquidate it again itself(auchwenn aufheben).
betweenMarx' methodand D'Alembert'smethod(and The difference and rejectedas trivial or also thatof Cauchy) shouldnot be misunderstood = = A versus xf x I x as was see + Marx, it, (xf A). perinsignificant correct. that D'Alembert'smethodis formally satisfied However,he fectly of the processof differentiation itself. wantedto come to an understanding x (and y) pass through obtainedby letting a sequenceof Is the derivative to let x (andy) reallychange?Thus underconstant values,or is it necessary can themotion ofa point stood,we see theold "paradox" ofZeno emerging: a sequenceof positions of thispointat rest?Zeno be obtainedby following will neverproducemotion;he also showedthata sequenceofsuch positions showedby a similarreasoningthat Achilleswill neverreach the tortoise. a mode of thought which D'Alembert'smethod,Marx claimed,represents does not do justice to the actual eventwhichhappenswhen a function is What happensis a real change,and thisis better understood differentiated. ofx and an entirely write newx', and then whenwe first /Axas a function Ay let x = xr. Moreover,A = x' - x does not only approach zero, A becomes zero. Emphasisis placed on the factthatthe derivative onlyappearswhen both Ay and Ax are absolutelyzero. This never became clear with the and appearedas an accidental in D'AlemLeibnitz-Newton, "mystics" thing is so It little understood that some such in bert-Lagrange.25 popular texts, the as Hogben's Mathematics the is that the Million, for impression given of differentiation is in true. But even our modern onlyapproximately process textbooks, thoughtheyuse a formalapparatuswhich is unimpeachable, behindtheapparatusis notfully someofthe thought clarified. Let us take,as an example,thetextbook PureMathematics ofG. H. Hardy, who is one ofour greatest mathematicians. The derivative is explained living in the Cauchy-D'Alembert way: ,M _ lim 0(s + A) 4>(x)
26More information in F. Cajori, "The Historyof Zeno's Argumentson Motion," vi, Am.Math. Monthly xxn (1915), p. 143-149.
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whichmeansthat {<f> (* + h) - <f> (*)} /h tendsto a limitwhen h tendsto zero. What does thismean?We are told that0 (y) tends to the limit/ as y number we tendsto zero,if,whenany positive small,is assigned, 8, however can choose^o(5) so that |4 (y) - /| < wheno <y J>o($).26 and subtle is exact, in the sense that we have a correct This definition near the hovers sincewe limit. But to criterium testany 4>{y) always limit, to is defined means of an "tends" zero. are told that 4>f (*) by Similarly, y = o is the event h ever reached? h which"tends" to zero. The questionis, it. The usual modern textbook definition Marx notonlyaffirms it,he stresses witha pragmatic because it is satisfied does not take thisquestionseriously, a limitwhenit appears.27 whichallowsus to recognize criterium of thecalculusproceeds is thatmuchteaching of theelements The result - and I confess in myown teaching. it is shown to it myself as follows First, as we like,butneverreached.Then can be approachedas closely thata limit of limit.And then withthe aid of thisconception is defined the derivative which could never be suddenlywe begin to work with this derivative, as ifit actuallyhad been reached. reached(as we have before demonstrated) in theformal is somehow The case h = o, xr = #, though apparatus, present An exceptionis foundin the workof Moritz obscuredin the reasoning. Pasch, who in his verycareful analysisof the derivative developsa formal apparatusin whichthereis fullroomforthecase h = o.28 who insiston utmost Marx therefore belongedto thatschoolof thinkers in interpreting a formal of thought contrasts apparatus.His position clarity or mathematical who physicists sharplyto that of those mathematicians believe that the formalapparatus is the only thingthat matters.Marx' thatsignificant who insists was thatof thematerialist, mathematics position in thereal world. mustreflect operations Marx' and D'Alemto noticethatthedifferences between It is interesting bert's formalapparatus diminishwhen we consider more complicated in the D' Alembert For the casey = sinx the derivative, functions. way of but byy = log x is stillobtainedby separation differentiation, (Loswicklung), Ax by letting h pass through can only be obtainedfrom the derivative Ay/ a real change.
28G. H. Hardy, Pure Mathematics (Cambridge UniversityPress, 6th ed., 1933) esp. p. oflimitis valid when7 tendsto zero by positivevalue. In a similar 116, 198. This definition of limitcan be reached when^ytends to zero by negativevalues. way a definition 27See e.g. F. Cajori, Am. Math. Monthly, xxn (1915), p. 149, concerning variables a question of argument,but it is not particularly reachingtheirlimits:"In moderntheory ratherofassumption.The variable reachesitslimitifwe will thatit shall; it does not reach its limit,ifwe will thatit shall not." Such a reasoningseems to lead to the conclusionthat it depends on our will whetherAchilles will reach or will not reach the tortoise. 28M. Pasch, "Der Begriff in Mathematik am Ursprung des Differentials," (Leipzig 1927) p. 46-73, esp. p. 61, 68.
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itself itbecomes is established as theresult ofa real change, As soonas dy/dx on calculus.Marx, in a manuscript thesubjectofa calculus,thedifferential of this formulas derivedas one of the first the meaningof the differential, ofx, is givenby of calculus,thatthederivative y = uz, u and z functions du dz dy can be written When uz =/(*), thendy/dx /'(*), and "the/'(x) stands as its double or symbolic own as its to expression, symbolic opposed dy/dx equivalent." has becomean independent coefficient differential The symbolic pointy starting has been moved to be found.The initiative whosereal equivalenthas first fromthe righthand pole, the algebraicone (in dy/dx =/'(*)) to the left calculus the differential one. With this,however, hand one, the symbolic of kind as a also independalready operating computation, specific appears are mathematical Its starting dz/dx pointsdu/dx, entlyon itsown territory. it. And and characterize this calculus to which exclusively belong quantities of the method resultedhere fromthe algebraic this reversal(Umschlag) into its of uz- The algebraicmethodchangesautomatically differentiation method. thedifferential opposite, in the equation (a), -r = Z x + u L *e common Now, by removing denominator dx, we obtain (b), d (uz) = dy= udz + zdu, in which every from traceofitsorigin (a) has been removed. valid in thecase thatu and z dependon x as well as in the It (b) is therefore case that theyonly depend on each otherwithoutany relationto x. It is the beginning a symbolic the beginning from equation and can servefrom as a symbolic equation. operational - we wouldsayan operational form a symbolic is therefore The differential = /'(x) and is form dy=/'(*) dx appears as just anotherformof dy/dx will form.Modern mathematicians into the differential alwaysconvertible shown29 has specially and V. Glivenko withthis tofind haveno fault method, the operational had stressed how Hadamard, the Frenchmathematician, Marx does not mention, characterof the differential. however,the now that dyshould be/'(x)Ax, obtainedby arbitrarily commoninterpretation = Ax. This dx way ofrepresenting dy,whichdates back to Cauchy, placing ofthe forhisintroduction Marx Boucharlat criticizes have (he escaped may We believe is an Boucharlat's method but differential, antiquated one). thatMarx wouldin anycase haveobjectedto this however equationdx = Ax, with an entirely betweentwo conceptions which establishedan identity of The different meaning. interpretationdybyCauchy,whichhas operational
19V. Glivenko, "Der Differentialbegriff demBanner bei Marx und Hadamard," Unter des Marxismus Marksi&na 1934, (1935) no. 9, p. 102-110; Russian text in Pod Znamenem no. 5. See J. Hadamard, Cours i (Paris, 1927), p. 2 and 6. d'analyse,
195
is mechanicaland can onlybe justified founditsway in all our texts, by the = can dx be as an use to whichthe formula to put approximation dy /' (x) And the certainchangesof a constant x into an equally constant x + A#.80 factthatthisdifference betweendx and Ax,dyand Aycan be neatlyrepresented in a figurewould not have impressedMarx and Engels, whose of the symbols of the interest was in the arithmetical-algebraic relationship ofchange.This maybe shown from thefollowcalculuswiththereal process Marx and Engelsafter Sam Moore had written between ingcorrespondence material ofMarx: his opinionon themanuscript Enclosed first a mathematical attemptby Moore. The resultthat "the methoddisguised"refers of course algebraicmethodis onlythe differential construction and is therealso relaonlyto his own methodof geometrical I have written to him thatyou do not care about theway in correct. tively in thegeometrical theapplicais represented whichthematter construction, is indeedsufficient tionto theequationofthecurves (reiche ja hin).Moreover, is thatyoumake difference between thefundamental youand theold method x changeinto*', hencemake themreallyvary,whiletheotherone departs but neverthe from x + ,whichis alwaysonlythe sum of two quantities, even whenit has passed through of a quantity. Your x therefore, variation x1 and has again become x, is yet anotherthan before;while x remains added to x and lateragain constant duringthewholeperiodwhenh is first of the variationis subtracted.However, every graphical representation hence of a of thepast process,of the result, the representation necessarily is represented the line x; its complement whichbecame constant, quantity thata graphical ofa line. Fromthisalreadyfollows as x + A,twosegments of how x becomesx1 and x* again becomes x is impossible representation (Engelsto Marx, Nov. 21, 1882).31 thenextday: Marx5answerfollowed criticizes theanalytical method whichI Sam, as you have seenimmediately, it aside, and insteadkeepshimself have used by simply busywith pushing to whichI did not devoteone word the geometrical application, damit thedevelopment I could in thesame way getrid of (konnte abspeisen) - beginning method with the mystical of the properso-calleddifferential method withtherationalist ofNewton and Leibnitz, thencontinuing method of D'Alembertand Euler, and finishing withthe strictly algebraicmethod from of Lagrange (whichhowever the same originalprinciple alwaysstarts - I could get rid of thiswhole historical as Newton-Leibnitz) development of analysisby sayingthatpractically nothingessentialhas changed in the
10Compare C. De la Vallee Poussin,Cours , i (Louvain, Paris, 1923), d'analyse infinitesimale "For the substitution 52: ofdxforA* in the equation d/(x) =/ (x)Axthereis no necessity, p. but it is hallowed by customand this customis justified." - see Marx-Engels 11The words between quotation marks are in English in the letter Abt. Ill, Bd. u, p. 571. Gesamtausgabe,
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ofthedifferential geometrical application calculus,thatis,in thegeometrical

representation(Versinnltchung).32
This last remark of Marx showsaffinity withthatof Dedekind,who also endeavoredto build up the calculusindependent of the geometrical representation ofthederivative. thisas one ofthecharacteristics We can consider of Marx' analysis, in whichit agreedwithour modernapproach.Another feature was his insistence on the operationalcharacterof the important differential and on his search for the exact momentwhere the calculus do "Infinitesimals" from the underlying springs algebra as a new doctrine. ofthederivanotappear in Marx' workat all. In hisinsistence on theorigin tivein a real changeof the variablehe takesa decisivestepin overcoming in not the ancientparadox of Zeno- by stressing the task of the scientist mode best the establish the contradictions in but to the real world denying in whichtheycan existside by side.32 is directly Here his position opposite to thattakenby Du Bois Reymond, thattheincrements who thought dx,dy have to be takenas beingat rest,invariable,33 or of the modernmathematicianTarski,who denies the existence of variable quantitiesaltogether.34 Marx' position in thisrespect will be appreciatedby mostmathematicians. ofthecalculus We believethatthissurvey ofMarx' opinions on theorigin is demonstrates that publicationof his other mathematicalmanuscripts also desirable. Massachusetts Instituteof Technology.
82Marx-Engels Abt. Ill, Bd. iv, p. 572. Compare Marx, Capital,Part I, Gesamtausgabe, ch. 3, Section 2: "The Metamorphosis of Commodities," (Engl. translation,ed. 1889, p. 76). 83Du Bois Reymond, op. cit., p. 141, states his dislike for the conception of dx as a denMann) quanmirentschieden wider "quantit vanouissante,"since he disapproves (geht titieswhich begin to move only when we look at the formulas:''As long as the book is restprevails.As soon as I open it, the race to zero beginsof all quantities closed, profound provided with the d" Marx, withoutcoming to Du Bois Reymond's conclusion,might have shared his criticism, since he wanted to expressnot only a change on paper, but a change in reality. 34A Tarski, Introduction to Logic (New York, 1941), p. 4.

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MARX AND MATHEMATICS

MARX AND MATHEMATICS

MARX AND MATHEMATICS

12A. Cauchy,Rsum des leons donnesa l Ecole Royale Polytechnique sur le

MARX AND MATHEMATICS

MARX AND MATHEMATICS

= + 32* + A' + 3A -(* + h)%

Marx thenparaphrases Lagrange'smethodin thewords:

= f{x + dh + g + . . . + h)-, (or/*) yx

j, -/()-, - J> - * - * - (i - ) M + **i + x') /(i) -/() - J>i

fMjzM . ym . 4 + XXl +A - X X' X' - X

MARX AND MATHEMATICS Whenx = x', or x - x' = o, we obtain:

or vanished appear in symbolical formas liquidated (aufgehobene) (verschwundene)

MARX AND MATHEMATICS

MARX AND MATHEMATICS

ofthedifferential geometrical application calculus,thatis,in thegeometrical

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