Productive forces

The tools (instruments, machines, utensils, and the like) by means of which material goods are produced, and people, who set in motion these tools of production aided by the accumulation of experience and knowledge. The productivity of human labor is dependent upon the historical level of development of the productive forces, which marks the degree of mastery of man over nature. Herein lies the significance of the productive forces and their growth for the life of society. The existence of the savage is unthinkable without his bow and arrow, his stone hatchet and other primitive implements, just as the existence of contemporary capitalism is unthinkable without machines and workers to operate them. The evolution of productive forces, which is first of all an evolution of the tools of production, lies at the basis of the evolution of the mode of production, that is, the productive system generally, including the production relations. This evolution, in its turn, leads to changes in the whole social superstructure. Under capitalism the evolution of the productive forces proceeds on the basis of profound contradictions which follow from the antagonism between the social character of production and the private, capitalist character of the appropriation of its products. In a socialist society, the productive forces possess unbounded possibilities of integrated growth and development which are directed towards raising the material and cultural level of the people.