ABSTRACT
Of course, we cannot here go either into the actual physical nature of man, or into the natural conditions in which man finds himself geological, orohydrographical, climatic and so on. By social we understand the co-operation of several individuals, no matter under what conditions, in what manner and to what end. This natural religion or this particular relation of men to nature is determined by the form of society and vice versa. In the whole conception of history up to the present this real basis of history has either been totally neglected or else considered as a minor matter quite irrelevant to the course of history. The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The individuals composing the ruling class possess among other things consciousness, and therefore think.
