Derivation of Equation (3.

17)
Before we proceed, there are several lemmas that need to be proven:
Lemma 1. [AB, C] = A [B, C] + [A, C] B
Proof.
[AB, C] = ABC − CAB
= ABC − ACB + ACB − CAB
= A [B, C] + [A, C] B

Lemma 2. ∂ α xβ = g αβ
Proof.
∂ α xβ = g αγ ∂γ xβ
= g αγ δγβ
= g αβ

h i
∂xβ
Lemma 3. ∂α , xβ = ∂xα = g αβ
Proof. We let the commutation relation act on an arbitrary wavefunction
ψ:
h i  
∂α , xβ ψ = ∂α xβ ψ − xβ ∂α ψ
 
= ∂α xβ ψ + xβ ∂α ψ − xβ ∂α ψ
 
= ∂α xβ ψ

We employ the shorthand x[µ ∂ ν] to represent xµ ∂ ν − xν ∂ µ .

h i
[J µν , J ρσ ] = − x[µ ∂ ν] , x[ρ ∂ σ]
h i h i h i h i
= −xµ ∂ ν , x[ρ ∂ σ] − xµ , x[ρ ∂ σ] ∂ ν + xν , x[ρ ∂ σ] ∂ µ + xν ∂ µ , x[ρ ∂ σ]
h i h i h i h i
= xµ x[ρ ∂ σ] , ∂ ν − xν x[ρ ∂ σ] , ∂ µ + x[ρ ∂ σ] , xµ ∂ ν − x[ρ ∂ σ] , xν ∂ µ
= xµ [xρ , ∂ ν ] ∂ σ − xµ [xσ , ∂ ν ] ∂ ρ − xν [xρ , ∂ µ ] ∂ σ + xν [xσ , ∂ µ ] ∂ ρ
+xρ [∂ σ , xµ ] ∂ ν − xσ [∂ ρ , xµ ] ∂ ν − xρ [∂ σ , xν ] ∂ µ + xσ [∂ ρ , xν ] ∂ µ

1
because the differential operators commute with each other

[J µν , J ρσ ] = −g ρν xµ ∂ ρ + g νσ xµ ∂ ρ + g ρµ xν ∂ σ − g σµ xν ∂ ρ + g σµ xρ ∂ ν − g ρµ xσ ∂ ν
−g σν xρ ∂ µ + g ρν xσ ∂ µ
= ig νρ J µσ − ig νσ J µρ − ig ρµ J νσ + ig σµ J νρ