The marginal utility of money is the Achilles heel of marginalism

The article discusses the genesis of neoclassical economics based on the analysis of the monograph «Principles of Economics» (1890) and the work «Money, credit & commerce» (1923) by the founder of the theory of marginal utility Alfred Marshall. The article presents a critical review of the main provisions of the concept of utility and marginal utility both in the edition of the founder of marginalism and in the edition of modern textbooks in the West and in Russia from the point of view of their application of differential calculus as a branch of mathematics. The incorrectness of the accepted assumptions/prerequisites of utility and marginal utility in the formation of simple mathematical models is shown, on this basis, the conclusion is made about the contradiction of the mathematical form of expression / recording of the utility function and the marginal utility of its economic content. The apotheosis of the logical contradictions of the concept of marginalism was the construction by Alfred Marshall of such an economic fiction as the category of «marginal utility of money», which does not have a mathematical function at all. It should be noted that from the first days of the emergence of neoclassical economics as a scientific direction, its relations and interaction with classical political economy and the proletarian political economy or Marxism that arose on its basis have, in fact, acquired an antagonistic character. In this connection, the theoretical overcoming of such an inherent defect of neoclassical economics as dichotomy is more relevant today than ever, and in practice, a review of approaches to teaching the basics of economic theory (not identical to mainstream at all) in higher education is urgently required.