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Picture of Kalleh
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I was at a conference this week where someone defined the word praxis as "reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it." Would you agree with that definition? It doesn't seem quite right to me. I hate it when people push the envelope on definitions.
 
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They do seem to be pushing it a little. Wikipedia gives
quote:
Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practiced, embodied, or realised. "Praxis" may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
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quote:
praxis

I think "reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it" fits within this definition from the OED Online:
quote:
Conscious, willed action, esp. (in Marxist and neo-Marxist thought) that through which theory or philosophy is transformed into practical social activity; the synthesis of theory and practice seen as a basis for or condition of political and economic change. Also: an instance of this; the application of a theory or philosophy to a practical political, social, etc., activity or programme.

The OED Online has five definitions, plus two obsolete ones.

Wikipedia says "Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practiced, embodied, or realised." That definition is pretty broad but, of course, it says much more.

Wordnet defines it succinctly as "translating an idea into action."
 
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I guess it's the "reflection and action upon the world" that throws me. "Upon the world?" Your OED link is interesting because it seems to just associate that particular definition to Marxist and neo-Marxist thought - of course maybe I am only reading out of a bigger context.
 
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After that definition it added "The term has been increasingly used since the 1960s, following the translation into English of Marx's early writings," and the following citations.

1933 S. Hook Towards Understanding K. Marx ii. ix. 76 That is why Marx claimed that only in practice (Praxis) can problems be solved.
1936 S. Hook From Hegel to Marx viii. 281 Practice (Praxis) was something much wider than practicability. It was selective behaviour.
1969 D. McLellan Young Hegelians & Karl Marx i. ii. 10 Will,..the motive force for that synthesis of thought and action for which Cieszkowski coined the term, so influential later, of ‘praxis’.
1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 May 582/5 ‘The embattled imagination’ and ‘maimed utopia’, whose values are under threat in the praxis-obsessed intellectual climate of the Federal Republic.
1982 J. Benedetti Stanislavski (1989) 66 What Stanislavski had to seek was a praxis , theory and practice in organic unity.
1993 Community Devel. Jrnl. (BNC) July 222 True knowledge evolves from the interaction of reflection and action (or praxis) to transform the social conditions.
2003 Internat. Midwifery (Nexis) 1 Nov. 65 Barbara Katz Rothman..led the sessions with her talk titled ‘Midwifery as feminist praxis.’

Here's the etymology and all the definitions:

Etymology: < post-classical Latin praxis action, practice (from 13th cent. in British sources), direct practical experience (frequently from 13th cent. in British sources), habitual or customary mode of action, method, technique (15th cent. in British sources), in title of treatise on a given subject (1451, 16th cent. in British sources), exercise of profession or occupation (1549 in a British source with reference to medical practice) and its etymon ancient Greek πρᾶξις doing, action, practice < πράττειν to do (see practic adj.) + -σις -sis suffix. Compare German Praxis (17th cent. or earlier).

Praxis is recorded in classical Latin as a Greek word, denoting an act, deed, as well as in the phrase habere praxim in a corrupt passage in Petronius of disputed sense, where it may denote effect.

In sense 1b after German Praxis, used by A. von Cieszkowski in Prolegomena zur Historiosophie (1838) 129, then adopted by Karl Marx in Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie, Einleitung in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher (1844).

1.

a. Action or practice; spec. the practice or exercise of a technical subject or art, as distinct from the theory of it; (also) accepted or habitual practice or custom.

b. Conscious, willed action, esp. (in Marxist and neo-Marxist thought) that through which theory or philosophy is transformed into practical social activity; the synthesis of theory and practice seen as a basis for or condition of political and economic change. Also: an instance of this; the application of a theory or philosophy to a practical political, social, etc., activity or programme.The term has been increasingly used since the 1960s, following the translation into English of Marx's early writings.

c. Linguistics. The rhetorical or performative aspect of language; speech as an action.

d. Action entailed, required, or produced by a theory, or by particular circumstances.

e. The performance of voluntary or skilful actions; purposive movement. Cf. apraxia n.

†2.

a. An example or collection of examples to serve for practice or exercise in a subject, esp. in grammar. Obs.

b. A means or instrument of practice or exercise in a subject; a working model. Obs.
 
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Originally posted by tinman:
After that definition it added "The term has been increasingly used since the 1960s, following the translation into English of Marx's early writings," and the following citations.

1933 S. Hook Towards Understanding K. Marx ii. ix. 76 That is why Marx claimed that only in practice (Praxis) can problems be solved.

1936 S. Hook From Hegel to Marx viii. 281 Practice (Praxis) was something much wider than practicability. It was selective behaviour.

1969 D. McLellan Young Hegelians & Karl Marx i. ii. 10 Will,..the motive force for that synthesis of thought and action for which Cieszkowski coined the term, so influential later, of ‘praxis’.

1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 May 582/5 ‘The embattled imagination’ and ‘maimed utopia’, whose values are under threat in the praxis-obsessed intellectual climate of the Federal Republic.

1982 J. Benedetti Stanislavski (1989) 66 What Stanislavski had to seek was a praxis , theory and practice in organic unity.

1993 Community Devel. Jrnl. (BNC) July 222 True knowledge evolves from the interaction of reflection and action (or praxis) to transform the social conditions.

2003 Internat. Midwifery (Nexis) 1 Nov. 65 Barbara Katz Rothman..led the sessions with her talk titled ‘Midwifery as feminist praxis.’

Here's the etymology and all the definitions:

Etymology: < post-classical Latin praxis action, practice (from 13th cent. in British sources), direct practical experience (frequently from 13th cent. in British sources), habitual or customary mode of action, method, technique (15th cent. in British sources), in title of treatise on a given subject (1451, 16th cent. in British sources), exercise of profession or occupation (1549 in a British source with reference to medical practice) and its etymon ancient Greek πρᾶξις doing, action, practice < πράττειν to do (see practic adj.) + -σις -sis suffix. Compare German Praxis (17th cent. or earlier).

Praxis is recorded in classical Latin as a Greek word, denoting an act, deed, as well as in the phrase habere praxim in a corrupt passage in Petronius of disputed sense, where it may denote effect.

In sense 1b after German Praxis, used by A. von Cieszkowski in Prolegomena zur Historiosophie (1838) 129, then adopted by Karl Marx in Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie, Einleitung in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher (1844).

1.

a. Action or practice; spec. the practice or exercise of a technical subject or art, as distinct from the theory of it; (also) accepted or habitual practice or custom.

b. Conscious, willed action, esp. (in Marxist and neo-Marxist thought) that through which theory or philosophy is transformed into practical social activity; the synthesis of theory and practice seen as a basis for or condition of political and economic change. Also: an instance of this; the application of a theory or philosophy to a practical political, social, etc., activity or programme.The term has been increasingly used since the 1960s, following the translation into English of Marx's early writings.

c. Linguistics. The rhetorical or performative aspect of language; speech as an action.

d. Action entailed, required, or produced by a theory, or by particular circumstances.

e. The performance of voluntary or skilful actions; purposive movement. Cf. apraxia n.

†2.

a. An example or collection of examples to serve for practice or exercise in a subject, esp. in grammar. Obs.

b. A means or instrument of practice or exercise in a subject; a working model. Obs.
 
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It's interesting that one of the definitions is from linguistics - "the rhetorical or performative aspect of language; speech as an action." Can any of you linguistic experts explain what that means?
 
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It's interesting that one of the definitions is from linguistics - "the rhetorical or performative aspect of language; speech as an action." Can any of you linguistic experts explain what that means?

There's a part of linguistics called pragmatics which deals with how people do stuff with language. Basically, it has more to do with the connotations of an utterance than with what it literally means.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
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Thanks, z. From your link, I do like that concept of pragmatic competence meaning he ability to understand another speaker's intended meaning.
 
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Cuberpragmatics on Language Log.

From a Facebook posting about a New Republic article on how capital letters became code for yelling on the Internet.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
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Both articles are very interesting. In the second one they asked about the use of emoticons in formal emails. I'd definitely say no. Indeed, even in informal ones I am leery. I know, for example, never to use them with my oldest daughter. She hates them.
 
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