Marxism and Mathematical Economics

Abstract

A widely used quotation from J. Willard Gibbs says that "mathematics is a language." This quotation also appears on the title page of Professor Paul A. Samuelson's book Foundations of Economic Analysis, which is itself one of the cornerstones of mathematical economics in the United States. This characterization of mathematics, suitably interpreted, may contain a basic truth. In its most direct or naive interpretation, however, I think it implies an underrating of what mathematics is and what it can do.

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