The concept of crisis in Marx and its expression in differential calculus

Abstract

This paper assumes as its starting point the logical inversion between the ways in which Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes conceive the crisis of capital: if the Keynesian tradition is characterized by a critique that arises from the crisis itself, in Marx it is the critique of Political Economy concepts that allows him to elaborate a concept of crisis. In the second section of the paper, we emphasize the path taken by Marx not only to establish a formal concept of crisis based on his critique, but also to explain the specific content of the crisis of capital. Then, we indicate how the concept of crisis can be translated into the mathematical structure of differential calculus, more precisely into the definition of infinitesimals established by Leibniz. Finally, we show that, given the inversion between Marxist and Keynesian theories, critique is inseparable from a notion of transition in the mode of production.