ABSTRACT
In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production which correspond to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation upon which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence but their social existence that determines their consciousness.
