“Mathematical manuscripts” by Karl Marx (On the occasion of the 200th birth anniversary)

Abstract

The article gives a brief review of the prehistory of the appearance of “Mathematical Manuscripts” by K. Marx published in the USSR in 1968 as a separate volume not included in the second edition of Marx and Engels collected works. The conclusion is drawn that the study of the divisions of higher mathematics (primarily differential and integral calculi) by Marx was connected with his desire to turn to the works of representatives of the “mathematical school” (O. Cournot, J. H. Thünen, W. Jevons, L. Walras and etc.), which was actively developing since the 1860s, and to understand the possibilities of the mathematical language for studying economic processes. The role of “Mathematical Manuscripts” as a kind of “cover” of the movement for applying mathematical methods in economics that arose in the USSR in the 1960s is identified.