Productive power
The term productive force comes from Marxist economic theory . Productive forces are all natural, technical, organizational and spiritual-scientific resources that are available to society for the production of goods and services. According to the law of the agreement of the relations of production with the character of the productive forces, they stand in a dialectical relation to the relations of production with which they together form a historically specific mode of production .
The most important social productive forces are
- the people, especially their abilities, skills and experience,
- the technology and organization of production, as well as the means of production and
- social knowledge, especially science .
From classical economics - the forerunner of modern economics - the much more narrowly defined and therefore not to be understood as a synonym " production factors " is common.
In the first volume of Capital , Karl Marx characterizes the productive forces as "determined by manifold circumstances, among other things by the average degree of skill of the workers, the level of development of science and its technological applicability, the social combination of the production process, the scope and effectiveness of the means of production , and through natural conditions ”.
In the German Ideology of 1845 / 46 Marx went along with Friedrich Engels believed that " any new productive force, if it is not a mere quantitative expansion of the already known productive forces (z. B. reclamation of lands) [...] a new Training the division of labor ". Whereby " each time the level of division of labor [...] also determines the relationships between individuals in relation to the material, instrument and product of labor ", i.e. the production relationships (Marx / Engels, Die deutsche Ideologie in: MEW Vol. 3, 1990, p. 22). With increasing productive power of labor , the existing relations of production would become “fetters” of it. In the Communist Manifesto , Marx and Engels describe this process looking back at the abolition of feudalism : the relations of production “inhibited production instead of promoting it. They turned into as many shackles. They had to be blown up, they were blown up. "
Quote:
- The development of the productive forces of social labor is the historical task and justification of capital. Karl Marx, Marx-Engels-Werke 25, Capital III, p. 269
literature
- Karl Marx , Friedrich Engels : The German Ideology , Chapter I: Feuerbach , 1845-1846, in: MEW Vol. 3, pp. 17-77
- Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: The misery of philosophy , Chapter 2, §2: Division of labor and machines , in: MEW Vol. 4, pp. 144–157
- Article "Productive Forces". In: Georg Klaus , Manfred Buhr (Hrsg.): Philosophical dictionary . 11th edition, Leipzig 1975.
- Article "Productive Forces". In: Manfred Buhr , Alfred Kosing : Small dictionary of Marxist-Leninist philosophy . 4th revised edition, Opladen 1979.
