Classic work of political economics In this classic work of political economy, Emmanuel Farjoun and Moshé Machover rebuild two fundamental concepts of the discipline: price and profit. They redefine the basic notions of political economy, relying on probabilistic–statistical methods of the kind used in the modern foundations of other sciences. This amounts to a rigorous new foundation of the labour theory of value. A defining work of Econophysics, republished for the first time since 1983, Laws of Chaos remains a challenging, innovative work of Marxist economics.

A defining work of Econophysics, republished for the first time since 1983, Laws of Chaos is an attempt to construct a non-deterministic theoretical framework for the foundations of political economy. It relies on probabilistic and statistical methods of the kind used in the modern foundations of several other sciences, introducing scientific modelling into economics for the first time.

A hundred years ago it became known that deterministic systems can exhibit very complex behavior. By proving that ordinary differential equations can exhibit strange behavior, Poincare undermined the founda tions of Newtonian physics and opened a window to the modern theory of nonlinear dynamics and chaos. Although in the 1930s and 1940s strange behavior was observed in many physical systems, the notion that this phenomenon was inherent in deterministic systems was never suggested. Even with the powerful results of S. Smale in the 1960s, complicated be havior of deterministic systems remained no more than a mathematical curiosity. Not until the late 1970s, with the advent of fast and cheap comput ers, was it recognized that chaotic behavior was prevalent in almost all domains of science and technology. Smale horseshoes began appearing in many scientific fields. In 1971, the phrase 'strange attractor' was coined to describe complicated long-term behavior of deterministic systems, and the term quickly became a paradigm of nonlinear dynamics. The tools needed to study chaotic phenomena are entirely different from those used to study periodic or quasi-periodic systems; these tools are analytic and measure-theoretic rather than geometric. For example, in throwing a die, we can study the limiting behavior of the system by viewing the long-term behavior of individual orbits. This would reveal incomprehensibly complex behavior. Or we can shift our perspective: Instead of viewing the long-term outcomes themselves, we can view the probabilities of these outcomes. This is the measure-theoretic approach taken in this book.

You know those corrupt lawyers who bribe judges, look the other way when a crime is committed, and break every rule meant to affirm order? I'm neither of those, I'm much worse. My father's only wish for me was to stay out of trouble. Well, that's hard to do when he worked for the mafia my entire life, along with the De Luca name that proceeds itself. Now I owe the mob, trust me, you never want to owe them anything. Big Tony has stepped down and his son Tino has taken over as the leader of M9. He's ruthless as he is gorgeous. He wants me and he doesn't care about my mixed heritage and I've fallen into his trap. If I'm not careful, instead of defending clients I'll need an attorney of my own. I'd like to think my tasks will be easy, but Tino isn't my only problem. He's assigned me to his twin brother, who is hot and an infuriating badass, who doesn't want to show me the ropes. It's funny because defending the law has always come easy to me, but now so has starting chaos. I am Maribella De Luca, the Rightful Boss of Jersey City.

This fascinating book explores the connections between chaos theory, physics, biology, and mathematics. Its award-winning computer graphics, optical illusions, and games illustrate the concept of self-similarity, a typical property of fractals. The author -- hailed by Publishers Weekly as a modern Lewis Carroll -- conveys memorable insights in the form of puns and puzzles. 1992 edition.