Marx held that social being, not consciousness, determines thought

Evidence

In the social production which men carry on they enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will; these relations of production correspond to a definite stage of development of their material powers of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation on which legal and political superstructure arise and to which definite forms of social consciousness correspond. The mode of production of material life determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being determines their consciousness. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 485

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the classic formulation of the base/superstructure problem that Hall will spend the chapter unpacking — the load-bearing text itself.