Productive Forces

Also known as “productive forces of society”, including material and mental productive forces. The objective material forces by which men exploit and change nature in their labor production in order to make it satisfy human needs. The productive forces embody the relation between man and nature in the production process and mark the practical capacity and level of mankind to change nature. Marx first confirmed the scientific connotation of the concept of productive forces and the component elements of productive forces in The German Ideology, holding that the productive forces are the fundamental driving force of historical development. In Capital, Marx attributed the elements that constitute the objective material forces, i.e., productive forces, to the “natural forces” of man himself, the “natural forces” of social labor and the “natural forces” of nature, and also emphasized that “as a living natural being”, man is first and foremost endowed with “natural powers, vital powers”, “these forces exist in him as tendencies and abilities, as instincts”, and “besides the exertion of the bodily organs, the process demands that, during the whole operation, the workman’s will be steadily in consonance with his purpose.”

Productive forces are a complex system composed of objective material factors, and the basic elements of this structure include the laborer, the instrument of labor and the object of labor. Marx said that the simple factors of the labor-process are the purposive activity, that is work itself, the object on which that work is performed, and the instruments of that work. The laborer is the one who is engaged in productive activity with certain experience in production, labor skills and scientific knowledge, and is the most important and the most vibrant factor among the elements of productive forces. The instruments of labor and the objects of labor can be transformed into real productive forces only if they are combined with the activities of laborers. Lenin said that the primary productive force of human society as a whole is human labor. Laborers include physical and mental laborers. In modern production, the quality and quantity of mental laborers are increasingly decisive. In the field of high and new technology, mental and physical labor have a tendency to be immediately identical. Deng Xiaoping pointed out that everyone who works, whether with his hands or with his brain, is part of the working people in a socialist society. With the advance of modern science and technology and with progress in the “Four Modernizations”, a great deal of heavy manual work will gradually be taken over by machines. Among laborers directly engaged in production, manual labor will steadily decrease while mental labor will constantly increase. The instruments of labor, also called the means of labor, refer to all the material means by which men change and affect the object of labor in the labor-process. They are the mediator between the laborer and the object of labor. The most important among the instruments of labor is the instruments of production. The instruments of production are the things or a complex of things that men use to process the objects of labor in the process of labor production. They directly transmit man’s effect on nature, mark the nature and the level of development of the productive forces, and are also the hallmark that distinguishes different economic epochs. Marx had figuratively likened them to bone and muscles, saying that they offer much more decided characteristics of a given epoch of production, and held that they are the indicators of development of human society. It is not the articles made, but how they are made, and by what instruments, that enables us to distinguish different economic epochs. Instruments of labor not only supply a standard of the degree of development to which human labor has attained, but they are also indicators of the social conditions under which that labor is carried on. The objects of labor are the objects processed by laborers in the labor-process, including the existing things in nature and the material means processed by human labor. The objects of labor and the instruments of labor are jointly called the means of production, and are the material factor of the productive forces, the material and technical basis of social production. The three basic factors of the productive forces are both distinct from and connected with one another, among which the laborer is in a leading position and plays a leading part. Through the mechanisms of social division of labor, collaboration and economic management, the three basic elements make up a system of productive forces according to a certain structure and function as a whole. From the perspective of affecting the level of productive forces, the productive forces also include science and technology. Marx said that science too is among these productive forces. Science and technology can be applied to the production process, penetrate into the basic factors of productive forces and transform them into actual productive capacity. The creation and application of science and technology will promote profound revolutions in the quality of laborers, the instruments of labor and the objects of labor, and greatly increase the productive forces of society. The rapid development of modern science and technology has become the concentrated embodiment and the chief hallmark of advanced productive forces. Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “Marx said that science and technology are part of the productive forces. Facts show that he was right. In my opinion, science and technology are a primary productive force.”

Productive forces are the material content that constitute social production and are the material root of the development of society. Human history is, in the last instance, the result of the development of productive forces. Productive forces are objective, acquired material forces that are independent of man’s will. Man cannot choose his productive forces; the productive forces of each epoch are the objective result of the creation of the practical activity of previous generations and are the material basis of current practical activity. Productive forces have a historical nature, and are a dynamic process of development from the lower to the higher. According to the different instruments of production used, the development of productive forces in human history can be divided into several stages, including the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Steam Age, Electric Age and the Electronic Information Age. With the development of productive forces, society is bound to move constantly forward.

The productive forces cannot exist in isolation from the relations of production, and the unity of the productive forces and the relations of production constitutes the mode of social production. The productive forces determine the relations of production. The nature of the productive forces determines the nature of the relations of production. The development of productive forces determines the revolution and development of the relations of production. As the productive forces are, so will the relations of production will be. Marx said: In acquiring new productive forces men change their mode of production; and in changing their mode of production, in changing the way of earning their living, they change all their social relations. The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill society with the industrial capitalist. Productive forces are the most vibrant and most revolutionary factor in social production and generally manifest themselves as the main determinant in the process of social development. The successive supersession of different social formations reflects the objective requirements of the development of productive forces. The differentiation and development of different stages within the same social formation is also determined by the development of productive forces. Changes in the relations of production are caused by the development of productive forces and are not determined by man’s will. The fundamental task of socialism is to develop the productive forces.