The methods of production have continuously changed with the progress
of time. Whence came these changes? The manner of labor and the
productive relationship depend upon the tools with which people work,
upon the development of technique and upon the means of production in
general. Because in the Middle Ages people worked with crude tools,
while now they work on gigantic machinery, we had at that time small
trade and feudalism, while now we have capitalism; it is also for this
reason that at that time the feudal nobility and the small bourgeoisie
were the most important classes, while now it is the bourgeoisie and
the proletarians which are the classes.
It is the development of tools, of these technical aids which men
direct, which is the main cause, the propelling force of all social
development. It is self-understood that the people are ever trying to
improve these tools so that their labor be easier and more productive,
and the practice they acquire in using these tools, leads their
thoughts upon further improvements. Owing to this development, a
slow or quick progress of technique takes place, which at the same
time changes the social forms of labor. This leads to new class
relations, new social institutions and new classes. At the same time
social, i. e., political struggles arise. Those classes predominating
under the old process of production try to preserve artificially
their institutions, while the rising classes try to promote the new
process of production; and by waging the class struggles against the
ruling class and by conquering them they pave the way for the further
unhindered development of technique.
Thus the Marxian theory disclosed the propelling force and the
mechanism of social development. In doing this it has proved that
history is not something irregular, and that the various social systems
are not the result of chance or haphazard events, but that there is a
regular development in a definite direction. In doing this it was also
proved that social development does not cease with our system, because
technique continually develops.
Thus, both teachings, the teachings of Darwin and of Marx, the one in
the domain of the organic world and the other upon the field of human
society, raised the theory of evolution to a positive science. In
doing this they made the theory of evolution acceptable to the masses
as the basic conception of social and biological development.
III. MARXISM AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE.
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