Also known as “productive forces of society”, including material and mental productive forces. The objective material forces by which men exploit and change nature in their labor production in order to make it satisfy human needs. The productive forces embody the relation between man and nature in the production process and mark the practical capacity and level of mankind to change nature. Marx first confirmed the scientific connotation of the concept of productive forces and the component elements of productive forces in The German Ideology, holding that the productive forces are the fundamental driving force of historical development. In Capital, Marx attributed the elements that constitute the objective material forces, i.e., productive forces, to the “natural forces” of man himself, the “natural forces” of social labor and the “natural forces” of nature, and also emphasized that “as a living natural being”, man is first and foremost endowed with “natural powers, vital powers”, “these forces exist in him as tendencies and abilities, as instincts”, and “besides the exertion of the bodily organs, the process demands that, during the whole operation, the workman’s will be steadily in consonance with his purpose.”
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