a) The Essence of the Productive Forces

p Thelmeans ot labour \and/the people who put them mto overation) and vroauce material wealth thanks to a definite production experience and labour skills, form the productive forces ot society.

p The production of material wealth is carried out by people. It is human beings who affect nature and transform its substances into means of subsistence. It is therefore obvious that people who participate in production should be included in the productive forces. Moreover, people are the main productive force of society. They represent the creative mainspring, a vital aspect of productive activities.

p People affect nature not with their bare hands, not directly, but through the means of labour. The degree to which nature is transformed and the quantity of material wealth produced depend 324 essentially on the means and instruments of labour used. So, the means of labour, too, must constitute part of the productive forces of society.

p While the means of labour are an essential element of the productive forces, it should be stressed that they are a productive force not by themselves, but only in organic unity with man. Isolated from people, who put the machine into operation, the latter is no more than a heap of metal. It is only in the hands of man that an instrument becomes a productive force. The means of labour, being the outcome of people’s creative activity, are thus able to fulfil their social function and act as a productive force only within the limits and exclusively as a vital aspect of this activity and its development.

p The use of even the simplest means of labour in the creative process presupposes a knowledge of how these means may be applied, and definite skill and experience in using the given means of labour. The greater is the experience in using any means of labour, the better and more efficient are people’s actions and the greater is their productive force.

p Thus the productive force of society depends not only on the people who participate in the production of material wealth and the means of labour that they use, but also on the experience in using these means and the workers’ skill.

p The technical organisation of labour, the location of people in the course of production and the division of functions between them, are factors influencing society’s productive force. The more 325 advanced is the organisation of labour and the more rationally are the means of labour and the work force utilised, the greater is society’s productive force. While analysing the specific features of simple co-operation and manufacture, Marx specially emphasised the dependence of society’s productive force on the organisation of labour. “By decomposition of handicrafts, by specialisation of the instruments of labour, by the formation of detail labourers, and by grouping and combining the latter into a single mechanism, division of labour in manufacture creates ... a quantitative proportion in the social process of production; it consequently creates a definite organisation of the labour of society, and thereby develops at the same time new productive forces in the society.”  [325•1  He amplified: “Not only have we here an increase in the productive power of the individual, by means of co-operation, but the creation of a new power.”  [325•2 

It follows that the productive forces represent concrete and objective opportunities available for society to influence nature and the ability that exists in society to produce a definite quantity of material wealth.

b) The Productive Forces of Society and Science

p In the early stages of society’s evolution, when science was still in its cradle and the instruments of labour were small-scale, primitive and designed 326 for manual labour, people were satisfied, as the production of material wealth was concerned, with the empirical knowledge gathered by previous generations in their struggle against nature and accumulated in the means of labour produced and the production experience handed down from generation to generation. With the gradual transition from manual labour to machine production, not only the knowledge acquired by the direct producers in the process of work and training, but also scientific discoveries began to be embodied in the means of labour produced and in the methods of their use. The designing and application of machines was based on systematic use of the laws of nature discovered by science. This made it possible to put the elements of nature into the service of production and replace human labour with them.

p In the initial stages, however, the use of science in production was somewhat limited. Scientific laws were only taken into account when creating mechanical means of labour, while production techniques still escaped the attention of science. However, the industrial revolution which began at the turn of the 19th century, soon affected one industry after another. Science began to play an increasingly great role in production. Apart from improving production techniques, it also paved the way for the emergence of new industries. Whereas, in the past, it had been primarily theoretical mechanics that had been directly linked with production, now it was the turn of physics and chemistry, which began to penetrate actively into 327 the sphere of production. Such discoveries in electricity as, for example, electromagnetic induction, cathode ray and the electromagnetic theory of light gave rise to a new industryelectrical engineering-which was the basis for the invention of the telegraph and telephone, the development of the dynamo and of electric motors, etc., which were destined to play a big part in the technical restructuring of production. The greatest discoveries in chemistry led to the emergence of the chemical industry and to the artificial synthesising of a number of substances needed for production.

p The rapid development of machine production provided the necessary base for the development of the experimental equipment that allowed scientists to take a deeper look into nature’s secrets. The turn of this century saw great discoveries in physics. The electron theory of matter was developed and the radioactive decay of certain substances (uranium, radium and others) was discovered. Study of the atom and its nucleus, the discovery of ever now elementary particles, and the formulation of the laws of their interaction and inter-transformation gave rise to nuclear physics, quantum mechanics and other branches of science. It became possible to use nuclear power in production and for military purposes.

p Together with physics and other sciences, mathematics also showed a spectacular development and its methods began to be employed on a wide scale in all sciences. The use of mathematical methods in various sciences gave rise to new 328 computing devices, the electronic computers, which can perform thousands upon thousands or even millions of operations per second. Cybernetics, the information theory, mathematical modelling, etc., were born. All the necessary conditions for complete automation of production processes and management were being created. Automation presupposes the use, in the technical devices and production techniques applied, of the most diverse sciences, in particular, physics, chemistry, electronics, mathematics and cybernetics.

p All this testifies to the fact that the means of labour and the technology utilised in present-day production become, as Marx put it, an “embodied power of knowledge”, materialised science. In the light of this, people who participate in such production can no longer seek support from their own experience and skills, but have to be guided in their practical activities by scientific knowledge related to the given line of production.

p The growing ties between science and production necessitate the greater involvement of research establishments. By designing ever better machines and installations, by developing the production techniques for new materials and by defining the ways of making more efficient use of the means of labour, researchers participate, to varying degrees, in the creation of material values.

p Hence, science is increasingly turning into a di^rect productive torce^while the productive forces are increasingly becoming a “technological application of science".  [328•1 

The transformation of science into a productive force is thus effected, on the one hand, by creating, on the basis of relevant scientific knowledge, better machinery and by developing new production techniques which better conform to the increased requirements. On the other hand, the people who take part in the production process master the achievements of modern science, and thus facilitate more rational organisation of production and more efficient use of machinery.