Philosophy of Economics

Human Beings as Bearers of Economic Relations: The Essence and Features of Social Production

The primary purpose of the economic sphere is to satisfy the ever-growing needs of humanity. Needs represent the characteristic of an individual to require certain conditions for their existence. The origin of these needs is intricately tied to the natural and socio-economic circumstances of human life.

Despite the broad classification of needs—spiritual and material; basic, necessary, artificial; rational needs and various other approaches—one can identify the most fundamental among them: the need for individual reproduction. This need is paramount because, first, it accompanies a person from birth to death, and second, the process of fulfilling this need gradually transforms into the process of production.

Production is the process in which humans, utilizing the forces of nature along with their own abilities and strengths, purposefully create both material and spiritual values capable of satisfying their life needs. This process is complex, necessitating clear organization, ordering, and regulation.

Social production exists at all stages of human community development, inherent to every historical epoch. It encompasses distinctive subsystems: material production, which fulfills vital human needs and the tangible conditions of human existence; and spiritual production, which forms the foundation for what is distinctly human in humanity—the spirit, along with its path toward self-improvement and self-development.

Significant attention has been given to the spiritual-producing dominance within social production, emphasizing the absolutization of spiritual activity and life. Thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Wilhelm Dilthey, Wilhelm Windelband, Heinrich Rickert, Benedetto Croce, and R.G. Collingwood have all contributed to this discourse. In contrast, the role of material production within societal life, along with its defining influence on the spiritual existence of individuals and society, remained the focal point of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' investigations.