T: OK I'll bite on this, see below
Tahir Wood: "To say that theory and practice are two different things is not to say that you can have one ENTIRELY without the other."
You have to keep your focus in a context. I don't need Einstein's Theory of General Relativity to perform all sorts of tasks. You do not have to 'check' the theory of gravity to conclude that you need to be careful whete you set that piece of rare china. Theory at this level has NO (direct) link to most human practice.
T: Who said anything about "direct". That's where you read me wrongly. And I didn't mean that every act makes a quick check of the theory. That would be absurd to suggest. Secondly, you're not understanding my notion of practice, which I tried to explain. Practice (as the word refers in practical philosophy) is about how you go about living your life. And how you go about living your life is, I maintain, intimately connected with how you understand your life, no?
Suppose Marx's critique, as construed (say) by Postone is correct.
Does anyone need to consult that theory to work out a particular campaign in a mass struggle? NO.
T: This glides way above any and every issue. For example: Is the "campaign" worth an adult's time? Why? Why do you want to embark on a campaign in the first place? How do you decide who your fellow campaigners are? Surely there are some principles involved here?
Does one have to consult that Theory to be opposed to capitalism? Obviously No. There is no link between the theory and anti-capitalist practice.
T: Silly, silly. How can you be opposed to something called "capitalism" if you have no idea what it is?
So what you say here is empty at most levels of theory. Most of those who turn out for local rallies or demos don't first consult a theory, then say, according to this theory I should go to the demo today. In fact, try to drag theory in here and you will end in a hopelesds muddle.
T: Erm ... I'm the one in a muddle? Who said anything about "consulting"? And what kind of theory is it that you have to "consult"? How about responding rather to my notion of theory as formative, as part of experience, of Bildung?
We are talking about both theory and practice here at a high level of abstraction, and they do not connect.
T: "They do not connect." Well that's put me right hasn't it? Now that I know that for sure my life is bound to change in fundamental ways.
There is a good deal of thought, a good deal of careful abstraction, involved in identifying the relation of theory and practice at any given context. Blunt statements like yours don't help.
T: Oh now I get it. They don't "connect" (your word not mine), but instead they have a "relation". Moreover they have a relation that only the most skilled in matters of "abstraction" can comprehend. (BTW I've written quite a bit on the topic of abstraction, which I would quite happily share.)
I wait in hope of "help".
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