>>> Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> 01/25/00 09:25AM >>>
JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 00-01-24 17:59:41 EST, Jim F writes:
>
> > Also, I would keep in mind Marx's
> statement in *Theses on Feuerbach* that "the philosophers
> have only interpreted the world. The important thing is to
> change it." One would think that you as a pragmatist would
> be sympathetic to such a view.
>
> Sure, but I doubt that moral philosophy often has that effect. I do think the
> world needs changing, and I try to do my bit. If my writing papers in moral
> philosophy contributes to that, however, it is only in the smallish way of
> keeping a candle lit for radical thought in the field.
I'm sure Jason (or any pragmatist) would not agree, but I am not alone in interpreting the Eleventh Thesis as a proposition in epistemology rather than pragmatics. The philosophers, having only interpreted the world, have been unable to interpret it, because only through engaging in the practice of changing the world can the world be known and interpreted. Im Anfang war die That.
Mao, in his pear-eating analogy, apparently accepted this interpretation.
&&&&&&&&
CB: Yes, a unity of epistemology and ethics (practice, what we do). The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
In _Anti-Duhring_, Engels says we know something when we can make it.
CB