>>> Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> 04/02/00 05:23PM >>>
P.S. to Charles. "practical" in Thesis 8 means consists of practice, not
"practical" in the everyday sense of something that works. The practical
in Marx's sense here can be the most stupid or obnoxious practice,
practice which either pursues a false goal or fails to achieve its goal.
__________
CB: See Thesis II on Feuerbach. Practice is the test of theory, therefore it comes AFTER theory, in that moment of the dialectic. Practice that tests theory cannot be "stupid". It has to be "smart" ( i.e. conscious) to give a test. Thoughtless, theoryless action is not practice.
Also, see Thesis I on Feuerbach, referring to practical-CRITICAL activity. The "CRITICAL" means the practice must be "smart" , not stupid. The important thing is not whether the goal is "true" or " false" , but that it IS a goal period. The failure to achieve the goal merely means it is case of the theory failing the test of practice, i.e. error. Practice is part of the dialectic of trial and error.
As Engels says, practice is experimentation and industry. This is what Marx is talking about in the Theses on Feuerbach when he refers to "practice." And as Engels says, the test of whether we know something is if we can make it, i.e. change the world in accord with our theory. This is in the same sense as Marx's "the thing is to change the world" (not just interpret it, but change it based on our interpretation of it ), in the Thesis XI on Feuerbach. The ability to change the world is the test of the philosopher's interpretation of it. This is also, turning a thing-in-itself into a thing-for-us , making a thing-in-itself knowable, beyond the Kantian problem. Commonly, the proof of the (theory of the) pudding is in the eating (the practice of making and consuming the pudding).
Also, see _Capital_ on labor, where Marx says the difference between the labor of a human and a bee or spider is that the human builds her product in imagination (theory) first, i.e. theory comes before practice. The human cook of the pudding works from a recipe.
And , of course, Lenin said, without revolutionary theory (first) there can be no revolutionary movement, i.e. practice, practical-critical activity.
Engels said Marxism is a not a dogma, but a guide to action ( practice). The guide exists prior to the action.
Of course, theory is modified based on its not passing the test of theory.
So, the total dialectic is thesis (theory), anti-thesis ( practice, negation of theory) , synthesis (modified theory)...vulgarly speaking.
It is Bernsteinian error to claim "the movement (practice) is everything , the goal (theory) nothing". (See _What Is To Be Done ?_ ).
This is a precis of Marxist epistemology or theory of knowledge.
CB