Economic determinism is generally taken to be the position that economic laws and relations govern the structure of society and the nature of our relations themselves. Prima facie, the claim is exceptionally strong: it necessitates the causality between the economic aspects of our social reality (such as the modes of production and derivatively the material means of subsistence) and the non-economic aspects (such as our social, political, intellectual, spiritual, etc. lives) completely. These claims are generally linked to Marx and Engels.