p The social and individual consciousness exist as an entity, primarily due to the common sourcethe social being of people, which determines both the social and the individual consciousness. Their common basis is social and historical practice. Modifications in social being generate corresponding modifications in the social consciousness, while the individual consciousness and the intellectual development of an individual reflect them and are directly dependent on the relevant elements of the social consciousness.

p Though they make up a unity, the social and individual consciousness nevertheless considerably differ in content and character, in how they take shape and in their principal functions.

p The subject of the individual consciousness is the individual concerned, and its content is a reflection of the social being of the individual and 148 the concrete conditions in which he has grown up and lived.

p The social consciousness, on the other hand, is a reflection of social being only. Being the aggregate consciousness of many generations, it relates to society as a whole, but not in the sense of a personalised society with its own reason. Society as a collective bearer of the social consciousness cannot be likened to an individual. Marx wrote: "It is wrong ... to consider society as a single subject, for this is a speculative approach."  [148•1  Every society, particularly in our age, is the unity oi diversity (classes, social strata, nations and nationalities, professions, and other socially and economically diverse groups). Similarly, the social consciousness is a unity of diverse elements having essentially different measures of community, i. e. elements applying to, say, the entire world community or to just an individual community, or to a class, a social stratum, nation or nationality, professional group, etc.

p While it exists in the consciousness of individuals and acts as a multilateral intellectual link between people, the social consciousness as a whole is an outward entity in relation to individuals, an intellectual environment with which the 149 individual consciousness has numerous and diverse links (relationships).

p These relationships are selective. It is not as though every new idea in the consciousness of individuals is transformed into the social consciousness, nor are all elements of the social consciousness accepted by individuals. There may, indeed, be differences between the social and individual consciousness if some views of the individual diverge from or even go counter to those of society, class, etc.

p There are divergences of different kinds: progressive - when the individual’s consciousness is a bearer of new elements, holds a correct picture and a deeper understanding of reality, and when in general it corresponds to progressive social relations and answers the needs of social progress; or regressive - bearing elements that contradict progressive social relations and the needs of social progress.

Communist construction causes appreciable changes in all the structural elements of the social consciousness, especially in science, and the ordinary consciousness is intellectualised; the psychology of the masses drops most of the survivals of past days; morality begins to reflect communist ideals and principles; and the individual changes intellectually. The communist consciousness rises to a higher order, and people become more committed to social and labour activity. It is 150 easier to plan the development of society for the long term, and to ensure its scientific management.