“Economic cell” or “DNA molecule?”: bringing the Marx “Capital” into harmony with cell theory and modern genomics

Abstract

Creating a general model of the economy, “providing a holistic knowledge of the economic system” (AD Nekipelov) is an urgent problem. The paper considers the possibility of using the subject and method of Marx’s “The Capital” in order to build a common model. The subject is an entity of relations within capitalist mode of production of life rather than wealth. The scientific method of ascending not from the abstract but from the simplest concrete to the complex concrete led to the discovery of an “economic cell”. Cell theory has influenced both “The Capital” and the understanding of history as a “linear sequence of stages”. The subject of the general model is relations that ensure the reproduction of life in a market economy. The method is consistent with genomics. Two factors of the product are the minimum set of “genes” of an “economic DNA molecule”. The cell is totipotent, i.e. possesses a complete stock of genetic material but in different cells the same genes are in an active or repressed state. Alignment with genomics allows us to build a model of modern market economy, to reconsider the linear sequence and put forward the hypothesis of “totipotency of various methods of production”, the activation of those methods that contribute to the reproduction of the life of society as a whole.