5. Major Themes of Social Science
a. The meaning and direction of ideas as well as actions are given through an understanding of the historical process in which these ideas and actions occur.
b. The historical process, which records changes in the modes of material life, is driven overwhelmingly by changes in the material modes of production, i.e. the ways by which people produce goods for subsistence. (In effect, the modes of production are associable with the economic structure of the society.)
c. Since social being, i.e. the state of society, determines what the individual human being is, society is not simply an aggregate of individuals. According to Marx, “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”
d. Again, according to Marx, “The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.”
e. Since what human beings are depends upon the existing social relationships and these social relationships change with time, human nature is changeable.
