πρᾶξις (praxis)
Action that enacts a theory and is shaped by it in turn; more than mere practice.
In lecture order, as Marci Shore presents each view. The time opens that minute of the lecture on YouTube.
Thinking is not enough; a theory has to be acted out. Praxis means doing something that a philosophy inspires and that realizes it in the world.
Put simply Horkheimer: thinking is not enough; a theory has to be acted on. "Praxis" means doing something that a philosophy inspires and that carries it out in the world.
Critical Theory, in Shore's account of the Frankfurt School's common project, is normative: describing the world is not enough, it also says what the world ought to be.
Put simply Shore's account of the Frankfurt School's shared project: Critical Theory does not only describe how the world is; it also says how the world ought to be.
Shore sees the Praxis Group's real preoccupation as overcoming alienation through praxis, a word they nearly fetishize: action that is partly self-chosen, theoretically informed and existentially fulfilling, not mere thinking.
Put simply Shore: the Yugoslav Praxis Group's real concern was overcoming alienation, the gap between what people are and what they could be, through "praxis," a word they almost worshiped: action partly self-chosen, guided by theory, and fulfilling, not mere thinking.
One concrete idea to come out of Yugoslavia's Praxis Group was that workers should manage their factories themselves.
Humans are essentially beings of praxis: free, creative activity that remakes the world and realizes one's faculties. Alienation is the gap between that potential and what one actually is.
Put simply Marković: what makes us human is "praxis", free and creative activity through which we change the world and develop our abilities. "Alienation" is the gap between what a person could be and what they actually are.
Links from these claims to others in the course. Each shows the earlier claim, then the later one that answers it. “Our inference” marks a link Shore does not state outright.
SartreThe for-itself (pour-soi) is consciousness as an activity, not a thing: a fluid negating of what one has been, reaching past the given into the future to do something different. L13 · 35:49
MarkovićHumans are essentially beings of praxis: free, creative activity that remakes the world and realizes one's faculties. Alienation is the gap between that potential and what one actually is. L18 · 32:15
Shore hears echoes of Sartre's for-itself, the going beyond, in Marković's account of alienation as the gap between actual existence and potential essence.
MarkovićHumans are essentially beings of praxis: free, creative activity that remakes the world and realizes one's faculties. Alienation is the gap between that potential and what one actually is. L18 · 32:15
PetrovićOnly socialist revolution counts as revolution "in its deepest and fullest sense," Petrović argues: not swapping one exploitation for a more progressive one, but abolishing all exploitation and self-alienation. L18 · 34:52
Builds the praxis-based account of alienation into a theory of authentic revolution.
MarxFactory work estranges workers from labor itself: hired by the hour, tending machines, performing one fragment of a process whose finished product is never theirs. L5 · 29:36
MarkovićHumans are essentially beings of praxis: free, creative activity that remakes the world and realizes one's faculties. Alienation is the gap between that potential and what one actually is. L18 · 32:15
Rereads Marx's alienation existentially, via Sartre: the gap between actual existence and potential essence
Throughlines that pass through one of these claims.
Terms that appear in the same claims.