Marx, Mao and mathematics: The politics of infinitesimals (Q1126884)

In this well-documented article, the author explains the various circumstances, historical, social, political and intellectual, of the Chinese interest into Marx's mathematical manuscripts. Fundamentally, the Chinese interest into such an aspect of Marx's works came from Marx's rejection of mathematical abstraction and idealism in favour of an approach linking dialectical materialism to more ``concrete'' and socially useful mathematics. As a result a considerable interest into non-standard analysis developed in China after the end of the Cultural Revolution. The author first presents the process of the Chinese translation of Marx's manuscripts which was initiated in China in the early 1970 and lasted five years. Second he analyses the Chinese reactions, by readers of various journals (the Journal of the Dialectics of Nature and subsequently by those of the Journal of Beijing Normal University and the Journal of Fu Dan University) and by mathematicians. Lastly, he explains why all this gave rise to the Chinese study of non-standard analysis.