Any economic system cannot exist without production. It permeates all the threads of the economic process and is a natural condition of human life, forming its material basis. It is to production that humanity owes its development.

Production is the process of human influence on the substance of nature in order to create material goods and services necessary for the existence and development of society.

The production process includes, first of all, material production, because without the production and reproduction of material conditions and means of life, human life itself is impossible. It also includes spiritual production, the production of people as social individuals and the production of “the very form of communication,” that is, a certain type of social connection between people. This approach allows us to consider it as the production of social life, an expression of the organic integrity of human activity.

Production has two interconnected sides. On the one hand, this is the relationship of people to nature, in which people modify the substance of nature to satisfy their needs. Man's dominance over nature is characterized by the level of development of the productive forces and, above all, the means of production. This reflects the material content of production, its technical side.

On the other hand, it includes the relationship of people to each other in the production process, or the relationships of people in the production process. This is nothing more than the production relations of people, the central place among which is occupied by property relations. This is the social side, the social nature of production. It is the production and reproduction of individuals in their relationships, which, in turn, is inseparable from the creation by people of the material and spiritual conditions of their life, and constitutes the main content of production when considered in relation to society as a whole. In other words, production is social primarily because its final product is always society.

As part of the analysis of the interaction of the components of the structure of social production, it is necessary to note the following. Of course, the basis of the social nature of production is the joint labor of individuals, on the basis and within the framework of which consciousness and collective forms of social communication and life activity arise and develop. In addition, as a person moved from the appropriation of finished products to labor, the formation of human consciousness and the very mechanisms of conscious activity took place. Thus, the production of consciousness is included directly in the real process of production by people of the conditions and circumstances of their lives. In addition, the objective basis for the formation and development of the structure of social production is the division of labor. Social production is a combination of various industries and productions that arose as a result of the general and private division of labor. With the social division of labor, the process of separating various types of specific labor into independent spheres of activity takes place, in which producers specialize in the manufacture of products in certain industries and types of production and are interconnected by the exchange of results of labor activity.

The category of social production gives an idea of ​​the integrity of the very basis of social life, noting the unity and interaction of the material and spiritual processes of people's lives. The foundation of this unity is the activity of people in the production and reproduction of the conditions of their existence, and the criterion of the social nature of production is the development of man as a social being.

The concept of social production, as a set of ideas about the practical nature of social life, the objective-active nature of man, as well as the holistic nature of people’s social activities, acquires the meaning of a fundamental principle that considers the entire historical process as a single whole, where all moments and factors are interconnected. .

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Production is a concept that characterizes a specifically human type of metabolism with nature - the process of active transformation of nature by people in order to create the necessary material conditions for their existence. Unlike animals, who satisfy their needs with the help of what is given by nature, man produces everything he needs for life - food, clothing, housing, etc. Production, therefore, is an eternal natural condition of human life - the basis throughout human history.

Three elements are needed to produce any thing:

1. an object of nature from which it can be made;
2. the means of labor with which this production is carried out;
3. purposeful activity of a person, his work.

Production always has a social character, both because people cannot produce alone, and because, by producing the means of life they need, people indirectly produce both their social relations and themselves as social subjects with their own abilities and needs.

K. Marx viewed social production as the unity of material and spiritual production, in which material production is the determining aspect, the basis for the development of society. Material production is, first of all, the relationship of people to nature. But people do not produce material goods alone. They create them together, entering into certain production relations. Therefore, the production of material goods is always social production. Production has two sides: productive forces, which express the relationship of society to the forces and objects of nature, by mastering which people obtain material goods, and production relations, which characterize the relationships of people with each other in the production process. Production, considered as the unity of productive forces and production relations, constitutes the method of production of material goods, which determines the character of a given society.

Production in the narrow sense is organically connected with the distribution, exchange, and consumption of what is produced. Production and consumption are two different and at the same time interconnected poles of social life, constituting a dialectical unity, therefore we can say that distribution, exchange and consumption are aspects of social production as a whole, interpenetrating and transforming into each other. Indeed, production is simultaneously consumption (both labor power and means of production), and consumption is production (human production).

The determining factor in this interaction between production and consumption is production, which not only creates an object of consumption and determines the method of consumption, but also serves as the basis for the emergence and development of human needs. Production is related to consumption through the distribution of the produced product, which depends on the nature of existing production relations. “Without production there is no consumption, however, without consumption there is no production, since production would then be pointless.”

“...It is absurd to single out “distribution” and “consumption” as some independent departments of science, corresponding to some independent processes and phenomena of economic life. Political economy is not concerned with “production” at all, but with the social relations of people in production, with the social system of production. Once these social relations are clarified and analyzed to the end, the place in production of each class is thereby determined, and, consequently, the share of national consumption they receive.” .

In class antagonistic formations, the owners of the means of production - slave owners, landowners, capitalists - appropriate the surplus product, and sometimes even part of the necessary product, while the working masses (slaves, peasants, proletarians), since they are completely or partially deprived of the means of production, are forced to be content with a minimal share the wealth they produced. The socialist revolution eliminates this injustice. With the establishment of collective property and the elimination of the exploiting classes, the production process is subordinated to meeting the growing needs of all members of society. Distribution under socialism is carried out in accordance with the quantity and quality of labor contributed to the general fund by members of society, and under communism - according to needs.

“Production really exists _always_ as historically determined...”- Do people really not produce during transition periods? ;)

“Production is organically connected with the distribution, exchange, and consumption of what is produced”- this refers to production in the narrow sense of the word. It is worth adding (or noting somewhere above) that distribution, exchange and consumption are aspects of social production as a whole.

“Production is related to consumption through the distribution of the produced product, which depends on the nature of the existing production relations”- it would be necessary to add a quote from Lenin that as soon as the distribution of the joint venture is given, then the distribution of the product is immediately given, etc.

“Production really exists _always_ as historically determined...” - do people really not produce during transition periods? ;)- Isn’t the transition period a compound two production methods?

It is worth adding (or noting somewhere above) that distribution, exchange and consumption are aspects of social production as a whole.- Made.

I should add a quote from Lenin- Can I have a link?

But isn’t the transition period a combination of two modes of production?— hello, “convergence theory”! :) Of course not. It is a mixture of economic ways of life, from which, with luck, a new joint venture begins to take shape. And this once again reminds us that the concept of SP is very important (many historians, for example, got rid of it by talking only about “formations”, as a supposedly “comprehensive” and supposedly “completely understandable” category).

Noosphere

In the process of functioning of society, a transition is taking place to a new quality education in the biosphere - to the noosphere (Greek- mind, reason).

The term “noosphere” was introduced by the French scientist, idealist philosopher Edouard Leroy (1870-1954), who was involved in mathematics, paleontology and anthropology. Ideas about the noosphere were developed by the French thinker, geologist-paleontologist, anthropologist and theologian P. Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). T. Chardin’s noosphere is ideal: it is a kind of “shell” of thought that envelops the globe, so he considered its exit into space impossible.

The definition of “noosphere” was used by the Russian naturalist, academician, first president of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (as part of the USSR) V.I. Vernadsky (1863-1945). His ideas played a substantive role in the formation of the natural science picture of the world. He developed the doctrine of the biosphere and the evolution of the biosphere into the noosphere, in which the human mind and human activity based on it become the determining factor in the development of society and the improvement of nature.

V. Vernadsky imbued the concept of the noosphere with natural scientific content. He noted that the logic of natural science in its foundations is closely connected with the geological shell, where the human mind manifests itself, that is, deeply and inextricably linked with the biosphere. For him, the noosphere is not just the kingdom of reason, but a historically natural stage in the development of the biosphere. In its evolution, the biosphere undergoes significant transformations in the 20th century. turns into a new qualitative state - the noosphere. It is created thanks to the growth of scientific knowledge and goal-setting human activity, including scientific achievements. Structurally, the noosphere contains:

• - People;
• - tools (equipment);
• - nature.

The main element of the noosphere is an intelligent person who interacts with the natural environment and is aware of the results of this interaction. The environmental factor in the development of society here is manifested through human activities in environmental conservation, natural restoration, improvement of nature and the prevention of the negative impact of natural anomalies on humans. The noosphere also extends to space, since in it man also began to actively carry out his activities, which gradually become institutional, system-forming for his social life. Society, according to Vernadsky, is located inside the noosphere and intelligently interacts with nature; therefore, problems associated with other systemic factors in the development of society, in particular, with material production, are specifically identified.

Material production

Material production is an essential component of the economic sphere of public life. The development of society is impossible without material production, that is, without the production of material goods (objects, things) that it needs for the harmonious and holistic functioning of ten spheres of social life and satisfying ever-increasing needs.

In this sense, one should distinguish between the concepts "material production" And "social production".

The meaning of social production is that in this process the historically determined reproduction of man as a social being included in the system of social relations is carried out. Social production, or, which is the same thing, the production of social life, has its own structure, covering all spheres of social life: economic and environmental, managerial and pedagogical, scientific and artistic, medical and physical education, defense and public safety, that is, the production of public life includes all functionally interconnected system-forming institutions of social life.

Material production is a fundamental element in the structure of social production, because it is in it that the material conditions of people's existence, as an indispensable modus of human history, human life and activity, they are directly and indirectly included in all spheres of social life, i.e. its system-forming institutions.

The life and activities of people are a complex set of conditions or factors of social existence. Materials in it play the role of a natural and artificial (practically created by people) basis, using which they carry out functions in various areas (types) of professional activity. However, the process of social relations is very complex, it is objectively spiritual, therefore in real life, at one or another historical moment, other factors influencing social development can be much more significant than material ones (for example, political or international). But the holistic, comprehensive functioning of society certainly relies on the material conditions of existence, which are optimized by the corresponding era: industrial, post-industrial, information, space...

The process of production of material goods is always of a social nature. In the process of this production, people enter into certain connections and relationships both with nature and among themselves. These two levels form two relatively independent sides of a single method of material production, represented by: first, productive forces (the content of material production); secondly, production relations (form, structure of material production).

Material production or the production of material goods, taken as a process of interaction between the social and the natural, as well as directly within society, presupposes the presence of four elements:

• - a person as a subject of labor;
• - means of labor by which labor is carried out;
• - an object of labor, that is, a natural or artificial object that is influenced by a person through means of labor;
• - production relations that arise in the process of material production.

By combining their labor with what is given by nature, using its laws, people artificially create something that was not there. In this process, material goods are created - products of labor necessary for a person to satisfy his needs. This is the process of material production.

Material production is a process of human activity through which primary and secondary natural materials, as well as artificially created ones (for example, nanomaterials), are transformed into material products aimed at satisfying increasing human needs.

Those forces with the help of which society carries out the process of production and receipt of material goods (products of labor) form productive forces. Depending on the basis, productive forces can be: objective and subjective, material and spiritual, individual (personal, group) and social (institutional).

It should also be noted that in modern production the boundaries between objects of labor and means of labor are often quite arbitrary, but nevertheless they exist. Whether this or that thing acts as an object of labor or a means of labor depends on its specific function in the labor process. That is, on whether it affects another object or, conversely, is exposed to this influence, with the aim of turning it into a consumer product. Means of labor and objects of labor taken together form means of production(material and energetic elements).

Human, carrying out professional functions, is its main link in the process of material production - activist possessing intellectual and physical abilities that are used purposefully (directly or indirectly) to obtain the necessary material results (products, benefits). In the production process, people perform operations of varying complexity: management and execution, intellectual and physical, energy and transport, etc.

Productive forces, first of all, people, although they are under the powerful influence of the material and energy elements of material production, play a decisive role in its development. They are the innovators - the creators of technology, who make progressive changes in production technology (methods of directly connecting a person with the means of production and their functioning), determine the material, technical and technical-technological base for use in relation to various areas of professional activity, and correlate the directions for its improvement. Therefore, it is quite logical to talk about such a systemic factor in the development of society as material, or rather material and technical.

It is advisable to note such an important condition for the development of modern material production as the corporate movement. Today there are no single artisans capable of providing all the material needs of society. This function is performed by corporations both in sectors of the economy and in specific areas of public life. A corporation is a voluntary organization of individuals or legal entities bound by regulatory obligations for the purpose of joint activities. Naturally, a number of questions of a target, structural, organizational, and management nature arise. If we are talking about material production as a determinant factor in the development of society, then the corporation is the most important organizational and managerial element of this process. Corporate needs are of a social nature, therefore the organization of their activities and the management of these activities meet the needs of society. Here there is a natural intersection of the needs and abilities of the individual, group and state levels, and without streamlining this process, achieving real innovative and innovative results from this activity is quite problematic. In addition, corporate governance involves corporate partnerships and corporate competition. Therefore, when making corporate management decisions, the following should be carried out:

• - comprehensive assessment of the current state of affairs (assessment of the situation);
• - conducting research on market needs (reconnaissance of the sales market and service sector);
• - material, financial, modernization and other measures for carrying out activities are provided;
• - partnerships, risks and competitive factors are objectively weighed;
• - a methodology for correlating one’s own activities was calculated;
• - a control and reporting system has been defined;
• - intermediate milestones for performance assessment have been determined;
• - basic and intermediate results of activities are outlined.

Corporate structures are significant enough to carry out various types of professional activities. They act as elements in the relationship between the whole and its parts in the systemic development of social processes, including material and production processes. The system of corporations includes the activities of joint stock companies of various types and different functional orientations: vertically integrated structures, intersectoral scientific and technical complexes, industrial production zones, technology parks, etc. The board of directors of such corporations exercises strategic leadership, and for the purpose of operational management, hires senior administration - management capable of effectively managing the organization, and controls its activities.

Let us note the essence of some laws of social development generated by material production.

The law of correspondence of production relations to the nature and level of development of productive forces . Its essence is as follows: the productive forces of society in their unity with production relations form the economic mode of production. This is a Marxist attitude that was taken for granted at a certain stage of life. At the same time, productive forces acted as the content of production, and production relations as its economic form in which people carried out their activities. The interaction between productive forces and production relations was subject to the general pattern of interaction between content and form, according to which content plays a decisive role in relation to form. In social life, this was expressed in the derived pattern of correspondence between production relations and the nature and level of productive forces. The nature of production relations was determined depending on the nature of the productive forces, that is, purely materially, without taking into account at all the “will and desires of people,” that is, their needs and abilities. Material and production things were initially “given” to people and only then did a system of relations emerge. But the point is that the spiritual and material essence of things and processes generated by man, society, society cannot be artificially broken. In some way this was represented through the law of active feedback of production relations, the understanding of which came somewhat later.

The law of active feedback of industrial relations. Its essence: like any form, production relations do not simply passively accept those impulses for change that emanate from the productive forces, but have an active reverse effect on their development. In the most general form, the mechanism of this impact seems to be as follows: productive forces are created and developed, maintained or leveled out as a result of the practical activities of people driven by social needs and purposefully organized to conduct social production. This process proceeds in accordance with existing relations of production. The active inverse impact of production relations on the development of productive forces seemed to be twofold. When production relations corresponded to the nature and level of productive forces, they acted as engine their development and accelerator of social progress in general. When the relations of production ceased to correspond to the productive forces, they turned into brake, significantly slowing down the development of them and society as a whole.

Therefore, the history of society and its development were presented as a movement through a transition from one socio-economic formation to another in connection with a change in the method of production. Today we understand that in social life not everything is as simple as it was imagined in Marxist theory. Productive forces and relations of production really exist; this is an objective fact. But the interaction between them is not so unambiguous and, moreover, not revolutionary to the extent that could lead to a change in the socio-economic structure. Social development in modern planetary space and time with their global connection has an evolutionary character, which has a certain tendency to bring countries, peoples, states, and, therefore, their economies closer together. Therefore, both the productive forces and the production relations of modern society are subject to objective changes associated with the entire system of relations inherent in society as a whole. History knows a number of imperial examples that distorted and slowed down the course of the social process, so we can realistically assume that in the presence of international mechanisms for regulating planetary development, intra-social processes, including the economy with its production, consumption, distribution and exchange of goods and services, will proceed in a stable mode , allowing the use of the material factor for the purpose of progress.

We know that there are many different sciences. Some study nature - physics, biology, zoology, botany, etc. And others are human society, this is history, literature, etc.

Each of these sciences studies one or another aspect of social life. There are many such sides. But the leading role in the life of society is played by the relationships that arise between people in the process production of material goods.

Why? Because a person can live and do any business only if he has food, clothing, shelter and other material goods that he needs to survive in this world. These blessings do not fall of their own accord from the sky - they produced by the people themselves. The fact is that if all animals simply find everything they need for life in nature, then a person cannot be satisfied with “simply found” - he will not survive. To survive in the natural world, man must produce myself for himself those items that he requires for life - growing grain, raising livestock, making pottery, weaving fabrics, etc.

But people do not produce material goods alone, but together. Even the most primitive form of production of primitive people - hunting - was possible only if associations the efforts of many members of primitive society. That's why production always has public character.

In order for the production of material goods to become possible, it is necessary to expend human labor. Work- This expedient human activity in producing the things he needs.

Sometimes they talk about the “labor” of bees, ants, and beavers. But this is not true. Labor is characteristic only for a person. Animals cannot have any purposeful activity, i.e. activities with a predetermined goal. The most they are capable of is to instinctively adapt to existing natural conditions.

In order to produce something, you must have something from which you produce, and something with which you produce. That is, objects and tools.

What human activity is aimed at is called subject of labor. Objects of labor can be given by nature itself or created by man. But even when they are created by man, they are still initially based on a natural product.

Objects of labor that are given by nature itself in finished form are, for example, wood, coal seams in a mine, oil, ore, gas extracted from the bowels of the earth, etc.

Man-made products are those that have been pre-processed, such as gasoline, kerosene, and other substances obtained from petroleum in an oil refinery. Such objects of labor are called raw materials or raw material.

The development of science and technology has created and continues to create new objects of labor, for example, the so-called. With synthetic materials. They have a number of advantages over natural objects of labor: they are very durable and at the same time have a number of new properties that people need, allowing them to be made into products that better satisfy certain needs of people.

A person, influencing objects of labor, with the help of means of labor, produces from them what society needs. TO means of labor These include, first of all, instruments of production - machines, machine tools, equipment, etc., as well as industrial buildings, warehouses, canals, roads, and transport. It also includes pipelines, vessels, tanks and other objects that Marx called the “vascular system of production.”

The main role in the means of labor belongs to tools of production, through which people actively influence objects of labor, remaking them to meet their needs. Marx called these tools “the bone and muscle system of production.” They serve as an indicator of technical progress, a measure of human power over nature.

By the tools of production one can judge the nature of socio-economic relations of a particular period in human history. “Economic epochs,” wrote Marx, “differ not in What is produced, and thus How produced by what means of labor.”

So, in the labor process a person uses means of labor and objects of labor. Taken together they form means of production.

No production is possible without means of production. But the means of production on their own cannot create material wealth. Only a person is capable of setting in motion machine tools, machines, combines, etc., and with their help influencing the principles of labor.

The means of production and people who have knowledge, production experience, work skills and set the means of production in motion are called productive forces of society. The higher the level of productive forces, the greater the degree of human dominance over nature. People who create wealth are decisive productive force of society .

Since production is always of a social nature - people work together, creating some material goods, then in the production process they must enter into certain relationships with each other. Such relationships that develop between people in the production process are called industrial relations.

Take, for example, the production of automobiles. In order to produce cars, you need to have or build a factory. Let's assume that this plant belongs to a capitalist. He hires workers to produce cars. Between the owner of the plant, and therefore all the plant equipment, and the workers in the process of car production, certain relations are established - relations of capitalist exploitation. The workers work for the capitalist, because all products produced at the factory belong to the owner of the enterprise and the profit received from the sale of cars also goes into his pocket.

It turns out that production relations depend on the form of ownership of the means of production.

The relations of production are not established arbitrarily. They may say that workers are hired by the capitalist of their own free will! Formally, this is so. But in the conditions of bourgeois society, factories, factories, railways, etc. are in the hands of private owners, and the workers are deprived of all these means of production and, in order to exist, forced go to work for capitalist enterprises. It turns out that the workers have no will of their own (or, as they say now, “freedom of choice”)! They cannot help but be hired by the capitalists to work, because these are the objective conditions of their existence.

Industrial relations affect the entire life of society. In particular, they determine the relationships between people arising in connection with the distribution of produced products. The nature of distribution depends on the social form of production. If production is capitalist, then the distribution of material goods is carried out in the interests of the dominant bourgeois class in society, and if it is socialist, as it was in the USSR, then in the interests of the people, who owned all the means of production in the Soviet Union!

It turns out that in order to find out what the nature of production relations is in a particular country, one must first find out who owns the means of production there. The position of classes in society, the exchange and distribution of material goods created in the production process depend on the form of ownership of the means of production.

Production relations and productive forces together form mode of production.

Since any most perfect instrument in itself does not produce anything, and at the same time a person cannot produce anything without means and objects of labor, it turns out that in order for the process of production of material goods to take place, it is necessary to combine labor power with the means of production. And this inevitably leads to the emergence of relations between people - relations of production. It turns out that productive forces and production relations cannot exist separately from each other, and only in their unity and interaction does one or another method of producing material goods exist.

Moreover, their role in the development of the production method is not the same. The leading place here belongs to the productive forces. They are flexible and plastic, capable of developing very quickly, and their development and change, and first of all the emergence of new tools, inevitably affects production relations - they also change. As a result, a revolution occurs in the entire method of production, a change in the entire social system.

But relations of production, developing following changes in the productive forces, are far from passive. Being progressive, they accelerate the development of productive forces. If they become obsolete, they turn from forms of development of productive forces into their fetters.

Relations between people arising in the process of production, exchange and distribution of material goods (economic social relations) constitute the basis of society, his support. On its basis, political and legal systems arise and develop. add-ons, various forms of social consciousness. In general, the basis and superstructure characterize one or another socio-economic formation.

In the history of human society, five successive socio-economic formations are known:

• primitive communal,
• slaveholding,
• feudal,
• capitalist
• and communist.

The communist formation in its development goes through two phases: the lowest - socialism and the highest - communism itself.

The replacement of one socio-economic formation by another occurs not by someone’s desire, but by force of action objective economic laws.

Introduction

Marxism is the belief system and teachings of Marx. Marx was the successor and brilliant finalizer of the three main ideological movements of the 19th century, belonging to the three most advanced countries of mankind: classical German philosophy, classical English political economy and French socialism in connection with French revolutionary teachings in general. With an integral and consistent system of his views, Marx laid the foundation of modern dialectical materialism and scientific socialism as a theory. This work is relevant even now. But rather, especially now - after a while, after the “gilding” of the party’s ideology has come off from Marxism, and it can be considered soberly, only as a system of views and statements.

The purpose of this work: is to consider Marxism as a scientific theory.

Object: political teachings.

Subject: political doctrine - Marxism.

The following methods were used in the work: study, generalization, analysis. As well as source works of such authors as: Lenin V.I., Marx K., Engels F.

Material production: concept and basic elements

Without a constant process of production, society could not exist, much less develop. The meaning of social production is that in this process the historically determined reproduction of man as a social being is carried out. Social production, or, what is the same thing, the production of social life, has its own structure, covering both spiritual production, and the production of man himself, and material production. Material production is a fundamental element in the structure of social production, because it is in it that the material conditions of people’s existence are reproduced as a fundamental condition of human history itself and the very ability of people to create history. The life of society, therefore, cannot be likened to a river in which all the drops play an unambiguous role. There is one decisive force in it, which ultimately determines everything down to the refined sphere of the spirit - the production of material wealth. Moreover, the process of production of material goods is always of a social nature: the production of an isolated individual is as meaningless as the development of a language without people living together. The joint labor of individuals is the first basis for the social nature of production, on the basis of which collective forms of social relations, the way of life and the entire way of life of people are born and improved.

What is material production itself?

In order to live, people must have the necessary means of subsistence. It is clear that even in order to possess this necessary minimum, people must work: everything is created for mortals by the care and labor of man, the ancients said. Man cannot be content with what nature gives him ready-made. By combining their labor with what is given by nature, using its laws, people create something that is not there. In this process, material goods are created, and this is the process of material production. Consequently, material production is the process of labor activity of people who, using appropriate means, carry out the transformation of nature in order to create material goods aimed at satisfying human needs.

The activity of people, no matter in what sphere of social life it occurs, is directed by certain needs of material production and at the same time serving as a subjective stimulus for its further development. Need is nothing more than the state of an organism, personality, social group, class, society as a whole, expressing their dependence on the conditions of their existence and acting as a motivating force for life activity that is always directed in a certain way; it expresses a subjective request to objective reality, the need for such objects and conditions that would contribute to maintaining a state of equilibrium of the system necessary for normal functioning and development.

However, the presence of a need alone is not enough to carry out an activity. To improve it, a certain goal is necessary, because no activity is possible without goal-setting, as well as the means to achieve it. When the goal coincides with the need, then the activity takes on a strictly goal-oriented character, and the need itself, now existing as a certain synthesis, as a goal-need, turns into a stable conscious interest. Interest is, in essence, a steadily directed incentive motive for activity, colored by an emotional-value attitude. It is he who helps to find means of satisfying needs and achieving goals.

Since the subjects of socio-historical activity are individuals included in certain social systems (groups, parties, classes, etc.), their activities are always based on a hierarchy of interests - from personal and individual to the broadest social ones. It is public interests that determine the degree of intensity and social significance of the entire scale of interests of this or that individual or any other subject of activity, starting with a small group, collective, because it is they who are most oriented towards real conditions and the general direction of development of the social system, thereby contributing to its conservation and progress. It is characteristic that a distinctive feature of social systems is their ability to purposefully form and mobilize socially significant interests. The loss or deformation of interests indicates an unfavorable state of the system (organism, society, etc.). The nature of interests is an objective, extremely subtle indicator of the state of the social system, its health.

Needs and interests - both personal and social - have a complex historical structure, ranging from biological and material to the most sophisticated spiritual - cognitive, moral, aesthetic, etc.

Social needs and interests constitute a kind of spring of the social mechanism: they determine the direction and content of the actions of both individuals and society as a whole.

In the totality of all public interests, the leading role belongs to the interests in the system of material production. The development of the economic sphere of society is the basis of its progressive progressive development, therefore its improvement to a large extent depends on the improvement and development of needs and interests in this area, as well as on the skillful combination and harmonization of personal needs with social ones. One of the levers for stimulating the growth of material production is to increase the material and moral interest (in other words, the mobilization of interests) of everyone in the results of their work and the common cause. After all, where there is no interest, there can be no real business.

Needs and interests in their orientation can be both objective and functional, when they express the subject’s focus either on the final result of an activity or on its process. Functional needs and interests are no less important for activity and the labor process, since they contain a powerful stimulus in the form of the aesthetic, moral and creative-intellectual sides of the labor process itself. If the activity process does not fall into the sphere of interests of the subject, then the result - the quality of the product - suffers from this. Thus, it is clear that functional and objective needs and interests are too closely intertwined and dependent on each other. In the end, society is not indifferent to the process by which its goals are achieved. It is not indifferent to every worker who is interested in the final results of his work, in the quality and quantity of products. When interest is directed to the labor process itself, the latter ceases to be an externally coercive force, turning into art, sometimes reaching the true heights of aesthetic creativity, and becomes an internal need.

Needs and interests, fading away in the results of activity, are revived in it at a higher level. The dialectic of the growth of interests lies in the fact that their very satisfaction gives rise to new needs and interests, as well as the means of satisfying them, which serve as the main determinant of the development of production. Identification and strictly scientific accounting and study of social and personal needs and interests is an essential condition for the correct choice of direction for the development of various sectors of the national economy, science and culture. The highest form of manifestation of public interest is the interest in developing productive forces, increasing labor productivity and improving the entire system of production relations, which constitutes a decisive criterion for the historical progress of mankind, as well as improving the essential forces of man himself, revealing and elevating his spiritual and creative potentials.

Material production has two sides: productive forces and production relations. People carrying out the production process act as the subject of labor. They constitute the main and decisive element of the productive forces. But, in addition, to carry out the production process, a source material, or an object of labor that is processed, is required. It can be land, minerals, metals, etc. But in order to influence the object of labor in order to transform it into the necessary product, it is necessary to use tools of labor. Tools of labor are objects created by man with the aim of influencing the outside world and transforming it in the interests of society. The ever-increasing complexity of tools is an indicator of the achieved level of production and, as a consequence, the degree of development of society. Production also requires appropriate buildings, warehouses, transport, etc. All this, together with the tools of labor, forms the means of labor.

The totality of means and objects of labor forms the means of production. The system of means of production, primarily tools of labor, constitutes the so-called material and technical base of society, which is the subject-energy part of the productive forces. This part represents past, or materialized, labor. But in order for the means of labor to enter the production process, it is necessary again and again to use labor power, that is, living human labor. Thus, in the structure of production there are two types of labor - living and materialized.

An equally important element of the structure of productive forces is production technology. The solution of technological problems is largely determined by factors such as the nature and tools of labor, the development of fundamental and applied science and the degree of its implementation in production, the level of scientific organization of labor, etc.

The complexity of modern production is such that it is already unthinkable without its scientific organization, which includes such basic areas as the rational use of means of production, management and planning. Science is increasingly entering the structure of the productive forces, becoming a direct productive force, and production - the technological application of science. At the current level of technological development, advanced training of workers is possible only if they receive the necessary level of scientific knowledge. Moreover, we are talking here not only about natural science and technical knowledge, which goes without saying, but also about broader scientific knowledge. After all, the influence of the humanities on the overall spiritual, moral, intellectual and creative potential is no less significant for social production. And if we consider the formation of a person as a subject of labor extremely broadly, then in addition to all types of science, it will be necessary to talk about the influence on him of the entire spiritual culture of his time, embodied in various artistic, aesthetic, ethical, philosophical values ​​of his existence.

However, neither the complexity of modern equipment and technology, nor the various forms of organization and production management should obscure the main thing from us - the person. Man is not a simple force along with a machine, but the spiritualizing beginning of the entire process of social production, which has absorbed the experience of the world history of mankind.

Production is not an end in itself for the development of society, but ultimately serves only as a means of developing its main value - man. It is in the labor process that the reproduction, improvement and self-affirmation of man as the highest value are carried out.

So, the productive forces are people (the human factor), who have absorbed the cultural experience of all previous generations, who have production skills for work and carry out the production of material goods; the means of production created by society, as well as the organization of labor, production technology, technology and scientific achievements. An indicator of the level of development of the productive forces of society is labor productivity, measured not only by the quantity of products created per unit of time, but also by its quality, and even more so by the development and improvement of the human factor, that is, everything that serves to satisfy the constantly evolving needs and interests of society .