MARXISM AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 67 in Marx's Preface to Ills work A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Marxian concepts of the mode of production, forces of production and production relations are central to the categorisation and periodisation of historical evolution of society, as well as to the outlining of the laws of social development and predictions about future. The opening sentence of the Communist Manifesto, which says "the history of the hitherto existent society is a history of class struggles", is imbued with tlie basic concepts of historical materialism. Similarly, the ideological essence of social sciences like politics, law, psychology, morality and aesthetics is emphasised by Marx in his famous statement "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness".2 In Marxist methodology, the relationship between base and superstructure is crucial to the understanding of social sciences.3 In other words, ideology pervades social science. In societies characterised by antagonistic classes, social consciousness would reflect the class character. As Lenin put it, ideas have always reflected the needs, interests, strivings and aspirations of a certain class.4 if economic relations of society present themselves in the first place as interests, this means that the economic material interests of a class are reflected in its political, legal, philosophical and other doctrines and theories.5 Diametrically opposite ideologies reflecting the views of the exploiting and the oppressed classes are clearly discernible in a society consisting of antagonistic classes. But in any epoch the dominating ideology is that of the class that holds dominating economic and political positions. The class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.6 That under capitalism the theories and prescriptions can be free from the dominating influence of the ruling capitalist class is inconceivable under Marxism. Marxist Ideological Perspective It is true that Marxism maintains that all social ideas and views— social consciousness as a whole—orginate and develop on the basis of economic conditions. In other words, ideology is ultimately detarmined by economic development and relations of production. But there is a range of intermediary links between the economy and ideology. This means that social ideas and theories are to an extent independent of society's economic basis. They have a certain degree of iridependencee.7 The sphere of history of ideas has its specific laws and its inner logic. Referring to this peculiarity of the ideological process, Engels wrote: Every ideology... once it has arisan, develops in connection with the given concept-material and develops this material further; otherwise it would not be an ideology, that is, occupation with