Part of the Politics series on Marxism

Sociology and Anthropology

Alienation

Bourgeoisie

Class consciousness

Commodity fetishism

Exploitation

Labour power

Proletariat

Relations of production

Underconsumption

Economics

Commodity

Law of value

Means of production

Mode of production

Productive forces

Surplus labour

Surplus value

Transformation problem

History

Capitalist mode of production

Class struggle

Dictatorship of the proletariat

Primitive accumulation of capital

Proletarian revolution

Philosophy

Historical materialism

Dialectical materialism

Important Marxists

Karl Marx

Friedrich Engels

Vladimir Lenin

Frankfurt School

Praxis School

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For the specific theoretical justifications behind the Great Leap Forward and the Five Year Plans, see Theory of Productive Forces.

Productive forces, "productive powers" or "forces of production" [in German, Produktivkräfte] is a central concept in Marxism and historical materialism. In Karl Marx and Frederick Engels's critique of political economy, it refers to the combination of the means of production with human labour power. Although this is little known, Marx and Engels in fact derived the concept from Adam Smith's reference to the "productive powers of labour" (see e.g. chapter 8 of The Wealth of Nations). Politics, sometimes defined as the art and science of government[1], is a process by which collective decisions are made within groups. ... Marxism is the philosophy, social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German socialist philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Alienation is a process whereby people come to be estranged from the society around them. ... bourgeoisie is basically a trem that meens middle class. ... Class consciousness is a category of Marxist theory, referring to the self-awareness of a social class, its capacity to act in its own rational interests, or measuring the extent to which an individual is conscious of the historical tasks their class (or class allegiance) sets for them. ... In Marxist theory, commodity fetishism is an inauthentic state of social relations, said to arise in complex capitalist market systems, where social relationships are confused with their medium, the commodity. ... The term exploitation may carry two distinct meanings: The act of utilizing something for any purpose. ... According to Karl Marx, there is a clear distinction between labor and labor-power in economics. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ... In underconsumption theory, recessions and stagnation arise due to inadequate consumer demand relative to the amount produced. ... Marxian economics refers to a body of economic thought stemming from the work of Karl Marx. ... The word commodity is a term with distinct meanings in business and in Marxian political economy. ... The law of value is a concept in Karl Marxs critique of political economy. ... The means of production are physical, non-human, inputs used in production. ... In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... Surplus labour is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ... Surplus value, according to Marxism, is unpaid labour that is extracted from the worker by the capitalist, and serves as the basis for capitalist accumulation. ... In Karl Marxs Economics the transformation problem is the problem of finding a general rule to transform Marx’s values defined and used in Capitals Volume I into the competitive prices (or prices of production) of Capitals Volume III. This problem was first introduced by Marx himself... The capitalist mode of production is a concept in Karl Marx’s critique of political economy. ... Class struggle is class conflict looked at from a Marxist, libertarian socialist, or anarchist perspective. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... Primitive accumulation of capital is a concept introduced by Karl Marx in part 8 of the first volume of Das Kapital (in German: ursprungliche Akkumulation, literally original accumulation or primeval accumulation). Its purpose is to help explain how the capitalist mode of production can come into being. ... A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... Work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Marxist theory, or which is written by Marxists, can be called Marxist philosophy. ... Historical materialism (or what Marx himself called the materialist conception of history - materialistische Geschichtsauffassung) is a social theory and an approach to the study of history and sociology, normally considered the intellectual basis of Marxism. ... It has been suggested that Marxist philosophy of nature be merged into this article or section. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, sociologist, and revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820, Wuppertal–August 5, 1895) was a 19th-century German political philosopher. ... (Russian: Влади́мир И́льич Ле́нин, IPA:, born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov; April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Communist revolutionary of Russia, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the main theorist of what has come to be called Leninism, which is described... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ... Praxis school was a Marxist humanist philosophical movement that originated in Zagreb and Belgrade, SFRY, during the 1960s. ... Image File history File links Stop_hand. ... The Great Leap Forward (Simplified Chinese: 大跃进; Traditional Chinese: 大躍進; Pinyin: Dàyuèjìn) of the Peoples Republic of China was an economic and social plan to use Chinas vast population to rapidly transform mainland China from a primarily agrarian economy dominated by peasant farmers into a modern, industrialized... Five-Year Plans or Piatiletkas (пятилетка) were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union. ... The term Theory of Productive Forces should not be confused with the Marxist analysis of productive forces that is a cornerstone of Marxist theory. ... Marxism is the philosophy, social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German socialist philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary. ... Historical materialism (or what Marx himself called the materialist conception of history - materialistische Geschichtsauffassung) is a social theory and an approach to the study of history and sociology, normally considered the intellectual basis of Marxism. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, sociologist, and revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 - August 5, 1895) was a German Socialist philosopher and the co-founder of modern Communist theory with Karl Marx. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... The means of production are physical, non-human, inputs used in production. ... According to Karl Marx, there is a clear distinction between labor and labor-power in economics. ... Adam Smith, FRSE, (baptised June 5, 1723 – July 17, 1790) was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. ...

All those forces which are applied by people in the production process (body & brain, tools & techniques, materials, resources and equipment) are encompassed by this concept, including those management and engineering functions technically indispensable for production (as contrasted with social control functions). Human knowledge can also be a productive force. Knowledge is information of which someone is aware. ...

Together with the social and technical relations of production, the productive forces constitute an historically specific mode of production. Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ... In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations...

Productive forces and labor

Karl Marx emphasized that, with few exceptions, means of production are not a productive force unless they are actually operated, maintained and conserved by living human labor. Without applying living human labor, their physical condition and value would deteriorate, depreciate, or be destroyed (an example would be a ghost town or capital depreciation due to strike action). Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, sociologist, and revolutionary. ... A street corner in the ghost town of Bodie, California. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

In addition, Marx shows that in capitalist society, the productive forces take the form of, or appear as, capital i.e. tradeable assets that earn money. The reason is, that in such a society, both means of production and human labour-power are alienable as more or less freely traded commercial goods (as exchangeable commodities). This situation did not exist in pre-capitalist society, because trade in means of production and human labour-power was heavily restricted both by legally defined ownership relations, and by inadequate technologies. In politics, a capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has an alternative meaning based on an alternative meaning of capital) is the principal city or town associated with its government. ... According to Karl Marx, there is a clear distinction between labor and labor-power in economics. ... The word commodity is a term with distinct meanings in business and in Marxian political economy. ... The means of production are physical, non-human, inputs used in production. ... According to Karl Marx, there is a clear distinction between labor and labor-power in economics. ...

As a corollary, capital itself, being one of the factors of production, comes to be viewed in capitalist society as a productive force in its own right, independent from labor, a subject with "a life of its own". Indeed, Marx sees the essence of what he calls "the capital relation" as being summarised by the circumstance that "capital buys labor", i.e. the power of property ownership to command human energy and labor-time, and thus of inanimate "things" to exert an autonomous power over people. Factors of production are resources used in the production of goods and services in economics. ...

A quote from Marx & Engels on the productive forces

"How little highly developed productive forces are safe from complete destruction, given even a relatively very extensive commerce, is proved by the Phoenicians, whose inventions were for the most part lost for a long time to come through the ousting of this nation from commerce, its conquest by Alexander and its consequent decline. Likewise, for instance, glass-painting in the Middle Ages. Only when commerce has become world commerce, and has as its basis large-scale industry, when all nations are drawn into the competitive struggle, is the permanence of the acquired productive forces assured. (...) Competition soon compelled every country that wished to retain its historical role to protect its manufactures by renewed customs regulations (the old duties were no longer any good against big industry) and soon after to introduce big industry under protective duties. Big industry universalised competition in spite of these protective measures (it is practical free trade; the protective duty is only a palliative, a measure of defence within free trade), established means of communication and the modern world market, subordinated trade to itself, transformed all capital into industrial capital, and thus produced the rapid circulation (development of the financial system) and the centralisation of capital. By universal competition it forced all individuals to strain their energy to the utmost. It destroyed as far as possible ideology, religion, morality, etc. and where it could not do this, made them into a palpable lie. It produced world history for the first time, insofar as it made all civilised nations and every individual member of them dependent for the satisfaction of their wants on the whole world, thus destroying the former natural exclusiveness of separate nations. It made natural science subservient to capital and took from the division of labour the last semblance of its natural character. It destroyed natural growth in general, as far as this is possible while labour exists, and resolved all natural relationships into money relationships. In the place of naturally grown towns it created the modern, large industrial cities which have sprung up overnight. Wherever it penetrated, it destroyed the crafts and all earlier stages of industry. It completed the victory of the commercial town over the countryside. [Its first premise] was the automatic system. [Its development] produced a mass of productive forces, for which private [property] became just as much a fetter as the guild had been for manufacture and the small, rural workshop for the developing craft. These productive forces received under the system of private property a one-sided development only, and became for the majority destructive forces; moreover, a great multitude of such forces could find no application at all within this system. (...) from the conception of history we have sketched we obtain these further conclusions: (1) In the development of productive forces there comes a stage when productive forces and means of intercourse are brought into being, which, under the existing relationships, only cause mischief, and are no longer forces of production but forces of destruction (machinery and money); and connected with this a class is called forth, which has to bear all the burdens of society without enjoying its advantages, which, ousted from society, is forced into the most decided antagonism to all other classes; a class which forms the majority of all members of society, and from which emanates the consciousness of the necessity of a fundamental revolution, the communist consciousness, which may, of course, arise among the other classes too through the contemplation of the situation of this class. (...) (4) Both for the production on a mass scale of this communist consciousness, and for the success of the cause itself, the changing of men on a mass scale is, necessary, a change which can only take place in a practical movement, a revolution; this revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it, can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages, and become fitted to found society anew. (From Die Deutsche Ideologie [1])

Productive force determinism

See article: Theory of Productive Forces

The term Theory of Productive Forces should not be confused with the Marxist analysis of productive forces that is a cornerstone of Marxist theory. ...

Productive forces and the reification of technology

Other interpretations, sometimes influenced by postmodernism and the concept of commodity fetishism have by contrast emphasized the reification of the powers of technology, said to occur by the separation of technique from the producers, and by falsely imputing human powers to technology as autonomous force, the effect being a perspective of inevitable and unstoppable technological progress operating beyond any human control, and impervious to human choices. It has been suggested that postmodernity be merged into this article or section. ... In Marxist theory, commodity fetishism is an inauthentic state of social relations, said to arise in complex capitalist market systems, where social relationships are confused with their medium, the commodity. ... Reification, also called hypostatization, is treating a concept, an abstraction, as if it were a real, concrete thing. ... Progress can refer to: The idea of a process in which societies or individuals become better or more modern (technologically and/or socially). ...

In turn, this is said to have the effect of naturalising and legitimating social arrangements produced by people, by asserting that they are technically inevitable. The error here seems to be that that social relations between people are confused and conflated with technical relations between people and things, and object relations between things; but this error is said to be a spontaneous result of the operation of a universal market and the process of commercialization. Although Harvard University has featured a Department of Social Relations (in which Talcott Parsons played a prominent role), and although the term social relations is frequently used in social sciences, there is no commonly agreed meaning for this concept (see also the entry social). ... A physical marketplace in Portugal enables buyers and sellers of produce to do business with each other. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Productive forces and productivity

Marx's concept of productive forces also has some relevance for discussions in economics about the meaning and measurement of productivity.

Modern economics theorises productivity in terms of the marginal product of the factors of production. Marx theorises productivity within the capitalist mode of production in terms of the social and technical relations of production, with the concept of the organic composition of capital and the value product. He suggests there is no completely neutral view of productivity possible; how productivity is defined depends on the values and interests people have. Thus, different social classes have different notions of productivity reflecting their own station in life, and giving rise to different notions of productive and unproductive labour. Factors of production are resources used in the production of goods and services in economics. ... The capitalist mode of production is a concept in Karl Marx’s critique of political economy. ... Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ... The organic composition of capital (OCC) is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy and used in Marxian economics as a theoretical alternative to neo-classical concepts of factors of production, production functions, capital productivity and capital-output ratios. ... The value product (VP) is an economic concept formulated by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy during the 1860s, and used in Marxian social accounting theory for capitalist economies. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... Productive and unproductive labour were concepts used in classical political economy mainly in the 18th and 19th century, which survive today to some extent in modern management discussions, economic sociology and Marxist or Marxian economic analysis. ...

Critique of technology

In the romantic or ecological critique of technology, technical progress often does not mean human progress at all. The design of production technologies may not be suited to human needs or human health, or technologies may be used in ways which do more harm than good. In that case, productive forces are transformed into destructive forces. Romantic and romanticism have a number of uses: Titles: Romantic (song) by Karyn White. ... Ecology is the branch of science that studies the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and the interactions between organisms and their environment. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are biologically classified as bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or thinking man) under the family Hominidae (the great apes). ...

Sometimes this view leads to cultural pessimism or a theory of "Small is beautiful" as proposed by E. F. Schumacher. Ideas about alternative technology are also proposed. All of this suggests that the technologies we have, are only options which have been chosen from different technical possibilities existing at the time, and that the same technologies can be used for good or for ill, in different contexts. Cultural pessimism is a significant presence in the general outlook of many historical cultures: things are going to the dogs, the Golden age is in the past, and the current generation is fit only for dumbing down and cultural careerism. ... Ernst Friedrich Fritz Schumacher (16 August 1911 – 4 September 1977) was an internationally influential economic thinker with a professional background as a statistician and economist in Britain. ... Alternative technology is a term sometimes used by environmental advocates to refer to technologies which are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice. ...

A technology may be chosen because it is profitable, and once adopted on a mass scale, it may be difficult to create alternatives to it, particularly because it becomes integrated with other technologies and a whole "life style" (e.g. petrol-fueled cars). Yet that may not mean that the technology is ultimately desirable for human life on earth.

Productive force determinism is then criticised on the ground that whatever technologies are adopted, these are the result of human choices between technical alternatives, influenced by the human interests and stakes existing at the time. What may be presented as a pre-determined "technical necessity" may in reality have more to do with considerations of political, sociological, or economic power. Political power is a type of power held by a person or group in a society. ... Sociologists usually define power as the ability to impose ones will on others, even if those others resist in some way. ... There is no agreed-upon definition of power in economics. ...

Advocates of technological progress however argue that even if admittedly "progress may have its price", without technical innovation there would be no progress at all; the same people who criticize technology also depend on it for their everyday existence.

References:

• Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, and: The German Ideology.
• Karl Marx, "The Trinity Formula", chapter 48 in volume 3 of Marx's 'Capital'.
• Josef V. Stalin, Dialectical and Historical Materialism.
• Gerald A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History.
• Perry Anderson, Arguments within English Marxism.
• Isaac I. Rubin, Essays on Marx's Theory of value.
• Bertell Ollman, Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society.
• Kostas Axelos, Alienation, Praxis and Techne in the Thought of Karl Marx.
• Peter L. Berger, Pyramids of Sacrifice.
• John Kenneth Galbraith, The New Industrial State.
• Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society.
• Leo Kofler, Technologische Rationalität im Spätkapitalismus.
• Anwar Shaikh, "Laws of Production and Laws of Algebra: The Humbug Production Function", in The Review of Economics and Statistics, Volume 56(1), February 1974, p. 115-120.
• Fransisco Louça and Christopher Freeman, As Time Goes By; From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution.
• David F. Noble, Progress Without People: In Defense of Luddism