[Marxism] -ismic doctrine or science? (was: Cockburn contrarianism )

[Haines Brown]

> There's a great book on the whole issue of Marx and
> Calculus by a teacher of calculus (published by MEP).
> I believe the great contribution that Marx made to
> Calculus is he de-mystified the phrase:
> 
> "let x tend to zero, but never equal zero" 
> 
> 
> Marx Demystifies Calculus 
> by Paulus Gerdes
> 
> http://webusers.physics.umn.edu/~marquit/catalog.html

I thought I'd consider Gerdes's book. Is it out of stock at
Amazon. There's one review which I reproduce here, but without any
implication I agree or disagree with it:

> > By Jake Kesinger (Glen Burnie, MD United States)

> > The title is a bit misleading; this book represents Marx's efforts
> > to put Calculus on a sound, rigorus footing.

> > As a mathematician, I have to say that Marx succeeds only in
> > moving the handwaving from one area to another.

> > If the author was not a mathematician, he should have made an
> > attempt to familarize himself with the actual rigorization of
> > Calculus in the nineteenth century (in, for example, the work of
> > Cauchy). If the author was a mathematician, he most certainly
> > should have known better.

> > I cannot recommend this book to anyone who does not have a solid
> > understanding of mathematics.

On the other hand, this from Alfred Barron (1999):

> > By way of conclusion the following observation from the late
> > Soviet mathematician Andrei Kolomogorov is offered for thought:

> > "In an especially detailed manner, Marx analyzed the question of
> > the concept of the differential. He proposed the concept of the
> > differential as an 'operational symbol', anticipating an idea that
> > came forward again only in the 20th century".

> > So while Marx may not have invented any new mathematics, per se,
> > his contributions to the discussion of the foundations of the
> > differential calculus warrant a place in the history of the
> > subject's philosophy. In this regard, his mathematical
> > commentaries deserve nothing short of a place alongside those of
> > Hegel or Kant.

Haines Brown