Marxism

* The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals. Thus the first fact to be established is the physical organization of these individuals and their consequent relation to the rest of nature. * Men can be distinguished from animals by consciousness, or by religion. They begin to distinguish themselves from animals as soon as they begin to produce their means of subsistence, a step which is conditioned by their physical organization. By producing their means of subsistence men are indirectly producing their actual material life. * The way in which men produce their means of subsistence depends first of all on the nature of the actual means of subsistence they find in existence and have to reproduce. This mode of production must not be considered simply as being the production of the physical existence of the individuals. Rather it is a definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite form of expressing their life, a definite mode of life on their part. * What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production. * This production only makes its appearance with the increase of population. In its turn this presupposes the intercourse of individuals with one another. The form of this intercourse is again determined by production. * The relations of different nations among themselves depend upon the extent to which each has developed its productive forces, the division of labour and internal intercourse. * How far the productive forces of a nation are developed is shown most manifestly by the degree to which the division of labour has been carried. Each new productive force causes a further development of the division of labour. * The division of labour inside a nation leads at first to the separation of industrial and commercial from