A Different Attitude for Mathematical Formularization between Marxian and Western Economics

Abstract

Mathematical modeling is more advanced in modern economics than in Marxist economics. But why is this? One answer deals with the characteristics of modern economics, which ignore what mathematics is not good at. Another answer is that Western economics assumes that a human being is a "rational economic man, " prompting economists to use the optimization theory. Many "Marxian economists" do not like this assumption. However, in my opinion, a "rational economic man" is a materialistic concept of a human being, so I built two types of Marxian models based on the optimization theory: Lenin's model of imperialism and the "Marxian optimal growth model." One more important characteristic of mathematical modeling is that it makes science progress incrementally, which gives modern economics a tendency to avoid challenging researches in a referee system of their journals. However, this type of attitude becomes an obstacle to explain phenomena that have not been seen before or do not fit their ideologies. In this sense, mathematics has to be used by ideologically free scientists; that is, Marxists. In this paper, we also referred to characteristics of "area studies" in comparing with Marxist methodologies.