Forms of Social Consciousness

Concrete forms of social ideology, reflections of the conditions of material production of man, manifested in social consciousness in the form of thoughts or concepts, a higher level of social consciousness, a conscious and stereotyped social consciousness, chiefly in the form of philosophy, religion, morality, literature, art, political and juridical ideas, science, etc. Each of them, in its own particular way, reflects from different aspects the historically changing reality of social life, and they are interconnected and conditioned by each other, constituting the social ideology as a whole.

The content of the forms of social consciousness is the social being, i.e., the “actual life-process” of men, and their reflection of social being, i.e., the material life of society and its process. From different levels of reflection of social being, it can be divided into social psychology and forms of social consciousness. Social psychology is a kind of spontaneous and non-stereotyped consciousness directly connected with daily social life. Forms of social consciousness are relatively conscious and stereotyped forms of consciousness reflecting social being. Social psychology is the intellectual basis of forms of social consciousness, and provides the initial motive, fervor and abundant consciousness-material for the formation and development of certain forms of social consciousness. And, these forms of social consciousness, as systematized and theorized, in turn give a significant influence on the development of social psychology. The interaction between social psychology and forms of social consciousness is one of the internal driving forces of the development of social consciousness. Historical materialism holds that forms of social consciousness are a reflection of social being in human consciousness, and that they are produced and developed in human social practice. The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, was at first directly interwoven with the material activity and the material intercourse of men, the language of real life. Conceiving, thinking, the mental intercourse of men, appear at this stage as the direct efflux of their material behavior.

Forms of social consciousness change with the change of people’s conditions of life, social relations and social being, but the most fundamental driving force of the development of social consciousness is the development of material production. However, as long as there is man, there will be social consciousness and forms of social consciousness, which are affected by the existence of class phenomena, but not by the withering-away of classes. Even if classes are abolished, forms of social consciousness will still exist, because they live or die together with the existence of man and his consciousness.

Forms of social consciousness can be divided into social ideology and non-ideological forms of social consciousness according to their different relations with the economic foundation. Social ideology is a conscious reflection of the economic foundation and political system of certain society, including political ideas, juridical ideas, morality, literature and art, religion, philosophy and most of the social sciences. Social ideology belongs to the superstructure. Other forms of social consciousness, such as natural science, linguistics, logic, etc., are the non-ideological part of the forms of social consciousness and do not belong to the superstructure. In class society, forms of social consciousness can be divided into ideological forms and non-ideological forms according to whether they directly reflect the economic formation of society and the political system. Forms of social consciousness that belong to ideology have a distinct class nature, while forms of social consciousness that do not belong to ideology have no class nature. Various forms of social consciousness influence each other, among which, political and juridical ideas are the most immediate and concentrated reflection of the economic foundation, have the strongest and most distinct class nature, and have a determining effect on other forms of social consciousness.

Form of social consciousness are fairly systematic and abstract forms of reflection extracted from social life, have a clear division of labor and relative stability. There is an identity between forms of social consciousness and social ideology, i.e., they are both “reflexes and echoes” of real material life, but there is also a difference between the two, in that the forms of social consciousness are immediate products of social being, while social ideologies are thoughts of the ruling class and reflections of the interests of a specific class. Marxism itself is an objective scientific theory and in its scope of thought it should belong to forms of social consciousness in general. Marxism is the form of consciousness of the proletariat, scientifically revealing the laws of development of nature, society and thought. It plays an important guiding role in the social practice of the proletariat and the broad masses of the people. A form of social consciousness can really play its part only if it grasps the broad masses in society.