Marx, maths, and MEGA 2

Alcouffe, Alain and Wells, Julian (2009): Marx, maths, and MEGA 2.

Abstract

This paper examines two areas where the MEGA 2 project can advance the understanding of Marx’s thought; although the contribution of MEGA 2 to each is very different, the areas are linked by their subject matter — Marx’s engagement with the mathematical sciences — and by other personalities involved.

In the first part of the paper we deal with the question of Marx’s mathematical manuscripts, the majority of which are apparently already available and translated into several languages, but awaiting their definitive publication in their place in the MEGA. In the second part we deal with Marx’s contact with nineteenth-century thought in probability and statistics, a story whose full elucidation cannot be undertaken until more volumes of his Notebooks are available, and especially that which is known to contain his notes on Quetelet.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Marx; Quetelet; mathematics; calculus; statistics; MEGA 2
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B1 - History of Economic Thought through 1925 > B14 - Socialist ; Marxist; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B1 - History of Economic Thought through 1925 > B16 - Quantitative and Mathematical

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