Negation and Imagination in Economic Calculus

The paper presents the concept of a recursive calculus of the economy. Economic decisions gain their self-reference from the fact that they contradict each other with regard to their decreasing marginal utility, opportunity costs, the postponement of satisfaction of needs and their own costs. This contradiction becomes the negation of the decision by itself. However, it is not a binary and antinomic negation, but a generalizing and reflexive negation. To negate a decision means to search for alternatives. With negation, a space of imagination is gained that can be unfolded in the medium of meaning in favor of factual, social and temporal references. The paper constructs a calculus of the economy in which money, markets, prices and risks provide the recursive symbols that allow economic decisions to be taken, counted, and ordered.