Material forces of production are the measureable skeleton of historical process

Evidence

In reality the philosophy of praxis does not study a machine in order to know about and to establish the atomic structure of its materials or the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of its natural components (which is the business of the exact sciences and of technology) but only in so far as it is a moment of the material forces of production, is an object of property of particular social forces, and expresses a social relation which in turn corresponds to a particular historical period. The ensemble of the material forces of production is the least variable element in historical development: it is the one which at any given time can be ascertained and measured with mathematical exactitude and can therefore give rise to observations and criteria of an experimental character and thus to the reconstruction of a solid skeleton of the historical process. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1648

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes what ‘material forces of production’ means within the philosophy of praxis — the measurable, least-variable element of history as opposed to natural-scientific properties of matter.
• XREF: This is core Marxist scaffolding — the base/superstructure distinction — that later readings building Gramsci’s hegemony concept depend on. — connects to: Material production remains indispensable even where services dominate employment — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 480; The science of instruments is historically tied to production and technology — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1622; Natural forces become historically operative only when production harnesses them — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1649