Page:Karl Kautsky - Ethics and The Materialist Conception of History - tr. J. B. Askew (1906).pdf/119

 men; only a few reflections from that affected the household and, consequently, woman's work.

The more this separation into different professions advances, the more complicated does the social organism become, whose organs they form. The nature and method of their co-operation in the fundamental social process, in other words, the method of production, has nothing of chance about it. It is quite independent of the will of the individuals, and is necessarily determined by the given material conditions. Among these the technical factor is again the most important, and whose development causes that of the method of production. But it is not the only one.

Let us take an example. The materialist conception of history has been often understood as if certain technical conditions of themselves meant a certain method of production, nay even certain social and political forms. As that, however, is not exact, since the same tools are to be found in various states of society; therefore, it is argued, the materialist conception of history must be false, and the social relations are not determined by the technical conditions. The objection is right, but it does not hit the materialist conception of history, but its caricature, by a confusion of technical conditions and method of production.

It has been said, for instance, the plough forms the foundation of the peasant economy. But manifold are the social circumstances in which this appears!

Certainly. But let us look a little more closely. What brings about the deviations of the various forms of society which arise on the peasant foundations?

Let us take, for example a peasantry which lives on the banks of a great tropical or sub-tropical river, which periodically floods its banks, bringing either decay or fruitfulness to the soil. Water dams, etc., will be required to keep the water back here, and to guide it there. The single village is not able to carry out such works by itself. A number of them must co-operate, and supply labourers; common officials must be appointed, with a commission to set the labour going for making and maintaining the works. The bigger