MARX VERSUS ENGELS ON INFINITESIMALS: A FORGOTTEN CHAPTER FROM THE HISTORY OF THE CALCULUS
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels held conflicting views on the subject of infinitesimals. Marxist scholar Guglielmo Carchedi asserts that “Marx differentiates with the eyes of the social scientist, of the dialectician” but fails to note dialectician Engel’s endorsement of infinitesimals pace Marx. Struik was partially correct to link Marx to Abraham Robinson, but failed to appreciate the fact that the link passes via. . . Fermat. Namely, there is indeed an affinity, as per Struik, between Marx’s comments on the calculus and Robinson’s nonstandard analysis, but the kernel of such an affinity resides in the techniques already found in the context of Fermat’s adequality. To adapt Carchedi’s metaphor, we could say that Marx may have differentiated with the eyes of adaequo of Pierre de Fermat
תאריך עדכון אחרון : 20/04/2025
