Practice philosophy

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Practice philosophy is a school of thought that refers to the early writings of Karl Marx , but from there also interprets all of his political and economic work. The term "Marxist philosophy of practice" is also used to distinguish it from the theory of action , pragmatism or a practical philosophy . It owes its more precise designation as philosophy of practice and thus the emphasis on its undogmatic character to the Italian historian Antonio Labriola . The various thinkers and contributions in this field can be characterized as practice-centered or practice-analytical. This approach includes an expanded understanding of reality in certain respects , a corresponding theory of knowledge and subjectivity, and assigns the practical thinker himself a certain position and task in the social process.

Broad philosophy of practice

Practice philosophers and academics inspired by practice philosophy understand practice as a way of human existence, at the same time epistemologically as the origin and reference field of cognitive abilities and the essentially creative character of human thought and action. This ability and the internal interactive structure of the human personality or identity correspond to the character of the external social context of action. The integral character of the concept of practice corresponds to the fact that theory does not stand outside or above practice, but is understood as its inner logical dimension. In addition, nature and everything representational do not fall beyond practice understood in this way, but meet as objectivity in their specific perspectives and horizons. In this way, the form of life practice has also opened up the dialectical nature of the world. Thus, “social practice” generally stands for the construction of social reality and the “social individuals” who live in and work with it. A “contradiction” and the resulting “dialectic of practice” are constitutive for the synthesis of social practice perspectives, that is, a process character of all events and the historical change of all social formations and practice formations. In this perspective, based on their specific social-historical situation, practice theorists see themselves as immanent in practice, as critics of alienated conditions and spokesmen for practical humanism , as responsible in the sense of a social mandate for emancipation.

Development overview

According to Ernst Bloch , the philosophy of practice represents a “novelty” in intellectual history and implies a corresponding type of scientific approach. Through ever new attempts to identify the philosophical core content of Marx's thought in this sense and to further develop the concept of practice in changing social-historical constellations, a European current of thought developed. These include outstanding thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci , Herbert Marcuse , Ernst Bloch and Henri Lefebvre . In addition, the Yugoslav practice group was temporarily formed and centers of the practice-philosophical discourse were formed in Korcula, Leipzig and Kassel. While the assignment of George Herbert Mead is controversial, at the turn of the 21st century, Pierre Bourdieu can be located in the practice-centered field. The whole development of the self-understanding "intervening understanding" is naturally closely related to the respective historical periods from the 19th to the threshold of the 21st century.

Development of practical thinking in the 19th century

The origin of the new way of thinking about practice lies in Marx's early writings Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte from 1844 and Die deutsche Ideologie , which in practice only came to the public in 1932. Even Friedrich Engels had, however, recognized that the originating from the early days 11 Theses on Feuerbach of Marx the "brilliant germ" contained the new and attempts are made to convey to our successors through his writings on dialectics and historical materialist view of the world, the basic idea. But it was only Antonio Labriola who identified a “philosophy of practice” as the immanent core of Marx's work and understood it as a task that had to be carried out further.

Approaches in the world war era

In the crisis and revolutionary epoch from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the Second World War, politically committed intellectuals emerged to renew the philosophical foundations of thought. Karl Korsch stated a "decisive crisis of Marxism" in view of the prevailing orthodox current. Of the more important Marxism thinkers Karl Korsch, Georg Lukács and Antonio Gramsci , the latter in particular referred to Antonio Labriola. The fifth volume of his works is entitled "Philosophy of Practice". As a left-wing intellectual who was not active in the communist movement, contributions by the young Herbert Marcuse are remarkable. Marcuse enthusiastically welcomed the first publication of the "Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts" in 1932.

Practical philosophers in the late 20th century

By claiming an authentic reference back to Marx, the philosophy of practice and the scientific knowledge anchored in it developed in sharp contrast to the Stalinist dogmatics and the Eastern doctrine of Marxism-Leninism . In the East, and particularly in the GDR, more recent approaches to practical philosophy were mostly rejected. The philosophy of practice was therefore predominantly present in the context of what Perry Anderson called Western Marxism . With regard to the creativity and the scope of the work, Ernst Bloch and Henri Lefebvre stand out due to the reflections on the philosophy of practice on his "metaphilosophy" and a cultural revolutionary "critique of everyday life". Bloch's main work The Principle of Hope contains the most important interpretation of Marx's “theory-practice concept” to date. Since 1968, the social movements were inspired by Marcuse's criticism of the “one-dimensionality” of modern society and by the concept of “concrete utopia” developed by Ernst Bloch.

Practice Philosophy and Critical Theory

In the West, the practical thinkers were always in a fundamental opposition to the prevailing affirmative thinking, to positivism and to so-called bourgeois theory, but also in a tense relationship to critical theory and the Frankfurt School as its center of action. The critical theory of Max Horkheimer , Theodor W. Adorno and finally Jürgen Habermas continued to distance itself from Marx. Habermas finally rejected the materialistically based practical term as "holistic" and gave priority to "communicative action". After the publication of his main work Theory of Communicative Action , Habermas advanced "in Eastern and Western Europe to the main heir of critical theory and philosophy of practice, " as Volker Caysa critically noted in 2010. With the “dominance of Habermass' philosophy, there was an opposition between production and communication paradigms in the sense of the opposition of old and new in philosophy. Alternative drafts of a modern practice philosophy that adhere to the production paradigm have since come under suspicion that they are out of date or have long since been overcome by the theory of communicative action . Other concepts of a philosophy of life practice are at best recognized from a philosophical historical point of view as concepts that correspond to a phase of Habermas' work development or that were canceled by Habermas himself. ”On the other hand, there is a reference to the Feuerbach theses and Marx's critique of political economy , The exchange with Hegel's dialectical philosophy, the connection with social movements, the orientation towards systemic alternatives and thus towards a future, not alienated, not capitalist form of economy and society are indispensable. The significant differences between the practical-philosophical thinking and a critical theory, but also compared to other social theories, emerge particularly in the positive evaluation of a practical science-based "concrete utopian" future thinking. With reference to ethnographic case studies recognize Gerd Spittler unlike Habermas, who work categorically as instrumental action determines work always as interaction or "communicative action". From the praxeological point of view of the ethnologist , nothing speaks in favor of the instrumental conception of work postulated by Habermas or the rule of technology. Rather, the work turns out to be "interaction between independent workers, work equipment and work items."

Centers of the practical philosophical discourse

Previously, under special historical conditions, in the space between the non-aligned Yugoslavia, the practice group was able to form, which achieved a European and international reputation for about 10 years through its summer school in Korčula and the magazine Praxis . The approach was not tolerated in the sphere of influence of the Soviet empire. For example, Bloch was forced to leave the GDR in 1961. The Czech philosopher Karel Kosík also had to leave the university and was defamed as anti-socialist. After a later attempt to rehabilitate practice as the “central category of Marxism” had been rigidly suppressed in the GDR, there were renewed attempts to establish links and discussions in Leipzig after the collapse. The most important center for the continuation of discourses on the philosophy of practice were the Kassel conferences and publications in the 1980s, most recently in 1993. One of the programmatic titles was “Basics and Perspectives of a Philosophy of Practice”.

Practice philosophy in the 21st century

As a result of the collapse of the GDR and the Soviet empire after the “ end of history ” proclaimed in the West, Marxist approaches were marginalized. The practice-philosophical stream of thought also suffered a personal and institutional drain. The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu with his draft of a “theory of practice” can be seen as an exception. His concept of a praxeological theory of knowledge and action clearly overlaps with Marxist approaches. On this basis he raised the demand for a “theoretically based utopianism ” and got involved in socio-political issues. In the more recent ethnology , social and cultural anthropology , arguments and research are often carried out praxeologically .

A demand for utopian research into social alternatives based on the theory of science can also be found in the case of the world systems theorist Immanuel Wallerstein . Wallerstein refers to the holistic character of social reality, which overrides the traditional separation of social science disciplines, and calls for a politically and economically informed "historical social science" which "feels comfortable in the uncertainties of a transition and which contributes to changing the world" Wallerstein identifies himself as a modern practical thinker.

For the history of the development of philosophy of practice, it is predominantly true that although it was fundamentally based on Marx's criticism of alienation and capital analysis, it was preferably on the terrain of a social philosophy , sociology and social psychology and came to a head in the idea of ​​“concrete utopia”. This did not come into play in the neighboring development field of the “Critique of Political Economy” up to the more recent Marx reading focused on economic theory.

The "Initiative for Practical Philosophy and Concrete Science" aims at these and other unanswered questions, now against the background of the current economic and social crises. The programmatic intention consists in the resumption and networking of practical philosophical approaches, the shaping as paradigmatic position of the modern social science and the merging of the utopian and political-economic approach in order to contribute to the orientation for a social alternative.

literature

  • Ernst Bloch : World Change or Marx's Eleven Theses on Feuerbach . In: The principle of hope, Vol. 1, Chapter 19, pp. 288–334.
  • Volker Caysa , Helmut Seidel , Dieter Wittich (eds.): On the concept of philosophical practice. The second practical discussion in the GDR . Texts on Philosophy Volume 12, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Saxony 2002.
  • Heinz Eidam, Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik (ed.): Critical philosophy of social practice. Confrontation with Marx's theory after the collapse of real socialism . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1995. ISBN 3-8260-1011-6
  • Helmut Fahrenbach: Henri Lefebvre's Metaphilosophie der Praxis , in: M. Grauer / W. Schmied-Kowarzik (eds.), Basics and Perspectives of a Philosophy of Practice. Kasseler Philosophische Schriften 7, Kassel 1982, pp. 80-108
  • Helmut Fleischer : Why actually materialism? For the reorganization of the means of thinking in materialistic practice analysis . in: Urs Jaeggi / Axel Honneth, Theories of Historical Materialism 1. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1977, pp. 173–295. ISBN 3-518-07782-1
  • Antonio Gramsci : Philosophy of Practice . Volume 6 of the prison notebooks . Argument, Berlin 1999. ISBN 3-88619-416-7
  • Karl Korsch : Marxism and Philosophy , Complete Edition Volume 3, Stichting beheer IISG, Amsterdam 1993. ISBN 90-6861-079-1
  • Karel Kosík : Dialectic of the Concrete. A study on the problems of man and the world . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970.
  • Henri Lefebvre : Metaphilosophy. Prolegomena . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1975.
  • Georg Lukács : History and Class Consciousness. Studies on Marxist Dialectics . Luchterhand, Neuwied and Berlin 1970.
  • Herbert Marcuse (1937): Philosophy and Critical Theory . Articles in: Culture and Society I. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1980.
  • George Herbert Mead : Spirit, Identity, and Society . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1975. ISBN 0-226-51668-7
  • Horst Müller : The PRACTICE concept in the 21st century. Karl Marx and the practical thinkers, the practical concept in the transition period and the latently existing system alternative . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2015. ISBN 978-3-7386-4684-9 .
  • Dominik Novkovic / Alexander Akel (Eds.): Karl Marx - Philosophy, Education, Social Theory and Politics. Topicality and perspectives of Marx's philosophy of practice . Kassel Philosophical Writings - New Series 8. Kassel 2018.
  • Gajo Petrović (ed.): Revolutionary Practice. Yugoslav Marxism of the present . Rombach, Freiburg 1969.
  • Gajo Petrović: The Frankfurt School and the Zagreb Philosophy of Practice , in: Axel Honneth , Albrecht Wellmer (Hrsg.): The Frankfurt School and the Consequences . Walter de Gruyter, New York 1986, pp. 59-85
  • Gerard Raulet: The overcoming of the bourgeois concept of science through Bloch's objective-real process knowledge , in: Journal PRAXIS International No. 1/1982
  • Julia Schnegg: Practice as a problem of knowledge and theory. The Feuerbach theses of Marx and the theory of practice by Bourdieu . in: Horst Müller (Ed.): The transition society of the 21st century. Criticism, analytics, alternatives . Norderstedt 2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-9769-8 , pp. 86-112.
  • Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik : The dialectic of social practice. On the genesis and core structure of Marx's theory . Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1981. ISBN 3-495-47446-3
  • Helmut Seidel: Practice and Marxist Philosophy , in: German Journal for Philosophy, Issue 12/1967. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin (GDR), pp. 1470–1485
  • Martina Thom: The practical and scientific understanding of Karl Marx , in: Horst Müller (ed.): The PRAXIS concept in the center of socially critical science. Norderstedt 2005, pp. 41-84
  • Immanuel Wallerstein : Utopianism. Historic alternatives of the 21st century . Promedia, Vienna 2002.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Praxeology , a practice-centered theory of knowledge and action that did not emerge from Marxist schools of thought.
  2. ↑ Friedrich Engels : Ludwig Feuerbach and the outcome of classical German philosophy. In: Dietz Verlag, Berlin / DDR, MEW 21, p. 264
  3. ^ Antonio Labriola (1896): About historical materialism. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1974, p. 318. It is said, "It is the philosophy inherent in the things about which it philosophizes"
  4. ^ Karl Korsch: Marxism and Philosophy. In: Karl Korsch Complete Edition, Vol. 3, Amsterdam 1993, p. 335
  5. ↑ Herbert Marcuse (1932): New sources for the foundation of historical materialism. In: Herbert Marcuse Schriften Vol. 1. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1978, p. 509
  6. ↑ Ernst Bloch: Changing the World or the Eleven Theses of Marx on Feuerbach, Chapter 19 in: The Principle of Hope, Ernst Bloch Complete Edition, Vol. 5, Frankfurt am Main 1977, pp. 288 ff., Esp. 315, 331
  7. ↑ Jürgen Habermas: On the reconstruction of historical materialism. Frankfurt am Main 1976, p. 31
  8. ↑ See article by Dieter Wolf : Jürgen Habermas' and Alfred Schmidt's criticism of the “Marxian production paradigm” with comments on the unity of nature and human history. Critique of Political Economy - interdisciplinary , September 2, 2012, ( 45 pages, PDF last accessed on June 21, 2020. )
  9. ↑ Volker Caysa: On the transformation of the spirit of the Leipzig Bloch period in the practice-philosophical debate around and before 1968 in the GDR , in: Klaus Klinner (ed.): Die Linke - Erbe und Tradition , Teil 1, Berlin 2010, p. 196 f, ISBN 978-3-320-02212-9 .
  10. ↑ Gerd Spittler: Anthropology of work. An ethnographic comparison. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, p. 66 ff, ISBN 978-3-658-10433-7 .
  11. ↑ See Ernst Bloch: Letter to the President of the German Academy of Sciences. [of the GDR] September 22, 1961 (last accessed June 24, 2020)
  12. ↑ Pierre Bourdieu: Draft of a theory of practice on the ethnological basis of Kabyle society . Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-518-07891-7 .
  13. ↑ Pierre Bourdieu: Neo-Liberalism as Conservative Restoration, in: Horst Müller (ed.): The PRACTICE concept in the center of socio-critical science. Norderstedt 2005, p. 175 ff. ISBN 3-8334-3737-5 . “How can the deliberate utopianism that Ernst Bloch formulated with a view to Bacon be revived and provided with social assertiveness? ... This theoretically based utopianism is probably what Europe lacks most. "
  14. ↑ Immanuel Wallerstein: The social science broken thinking. The Limits of the 19th Century Paradigms. Weinheim 1995, p. 314 f. Wallerstein's demand for a “holistic” analysis of reality that can only be understood as “historical” corresponds to the integral concept of practice. The “concrete utopia” in practical thinking corresponds to its orientation towards a scientific “utopianism”.
  15. ↑ Initiative for practical philosophy and concrete science Portal for Marxism and practical thinking since 2001
  16. ↑ '' Kasseler Philosophische Schriften NF8 '' website of the University of Kassel. Retrieved April 20, 2019.