Technology, Economy, Politics, Culture - 2

Karl Marx in the preface to his "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" (1859):

1. In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production.

2. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.

3. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.

4. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.

5. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.

6. In broad outline, the tribal, ancient, feudal and capitalist modes of production may be designated as epochs marking progress in the economic development of society.

See "Technology, Economy, Politics, Culture" (T-E-P-C)