Praxis and Practice: Ways of Distinguishing

The article exposes diverse historical-philosophical meanings of the concepts of praxis and practice. Using the works of Aristotle, I. Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, K. Marx, H. Lotze, and H. Arendt, the author demonstrates the main ways of distinguishing between these two notions. The article clarifies meanings of praxis and prudence in Aristotle’s philosophy. The crucial transformation of the sense of practice in classical German philosophy, its further neo-Kantian and neo-Hegelian interpretations are also considered. The author reveals a range of categorical forms of comprehending the practical and traces the basic directions of the development of definitions of praxis and practice, indicating the historical-philosophical contexts of their evolution. The article compares the conceptions of the acting subject developed by I. Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, K. Marx, and H. Lotze. Special attention is given to the explication of H. Lotze’s practical philosophy in building and distributing the conception of active life. Marxist and Lotzean approaches to praxis are compared, and their role in the formation of its current interpretations is revealed. These interpretations are problematized, taking into account the partly reconstructed initial meanings of praxis in Aristotle’s philosophy. The author justifies the relevance of H. Lotze’s legacy in Russian philosophy, examining the categories of social action and active life, the acting subject and society. The article demonstrates prospects for their reconsideration in social philosophy by approaching H. Lotze’s practical philosophy. The conclusion highlights consequences of the replacement of the Aristotelian definition of praxis with the Lotzean version, the possibility and necessity of reproducing the initial sense of praxis as different from practice in diverse historical-philosophical interpretations.

1. Arendt H. (1958) The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (Russian translation: Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, 2017).

2. Aristote (1823). La morale et la politique d’Aristote (J.-Fr. Thurot, Trans.). Paris: Didot (French translation).

3. Aristote (1959). Éthique à Nicomaque (J. Tricot, Trans). Paris: Vrin (French translation).

4. Aristoteles (1798a). Die Ethik des Aristoteles (C. Garve, Trans.). Breslau: bey Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn (German translation).

5. Aristoteles (1798b). Politik und Fragment der Oeconomik (J.G. Schlosser, Trans.). Lübeck: bey Friedrich Bohn (German translation).

6. Aristoteles (1876). Des Aristoteles Nikomachische Ethik (J. H. von Kirchmann, Trans.). Leipzig: E. Koschny (L. Heimann) (German translation).

7. Aristotle (1811). The Rhetoric, Poetic and Nicomachean Ethics (T. Taylor, Trans.). London: R. Wilks, 1811.

8. Aristotle (1894). Ethica Nicomachea (J. Bywater, Ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

9. Aristotle (1934). Nicomachean Ethics (H. Rackham, Trans.). In: Aristotle in 23 Vols. (Vol. 19). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann.

10. Aristotle (1957). Aristotelis Politica (W.D. Ross, Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

11. Aristotle (1980). The Nicomachean Ethics (H.G. Apostle, Trans.). Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

12. Aristotle (1983). Nicomachean Ethics (N.V. Braginskaya, Trans.). In: Aristotle. Works in 4 Vols. (Vol 4, pp. 53–293). Moscow: Mysl’ (Russian translation).

13. Aristotle (2012). Politics. Moscow: AST; Astrel’ (Russian translation).

14. Aristotle (2020). Ethics. Moscow: AST (Russian translation).

15. Backman J. (2010) The End of Action: An Arendtian Critique of Aristotle’s Concept of Praxis. In: Ojakangas M. (Ed.) Hannah Arendt: Practice, Thought and Judgement (pp. 28–47). Helsinki: Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.

16. Bobzien S. (2013) Found in Translation: Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics 3.5, 1113b7–8 and its Reception. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy. Vol. 45, pp. 103–148.

17. Corcilius K. (2019) Teleology of the practical in Aristotle: The meaning of “πρaξισ”. Manuscrito. Vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 352–386.

18. Marx K. (1989) Theses on Feuerbach. In: Engels F. Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy (pp. 101–108). Мoscow: Politizdat (Russian translation).

19. Evagrius Ponticus (1987). Praktikos and On Prayer (S. Tugwell, Trans.). Oxford: Faculty of Theology.

20. Hegel G.W.F. (1833) Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts. Berlin: Verlag von Duncker und Humblot (in German).

21. Hegel G.W.F. (1907) Phänomenologie des Geistes. Leipzig: Verlag der Dürr‘shen Buchhandlung (in German).

22. Hegel G.W.F. (2000) The Phenomenology of Spirit. Moscow: Nauka (in Russian).

23. Jameson F. (2010) The Hegel Variations. On the Phenomenology of Spirit. London: Verso.

24. Kant I. (1965a) On the Common Saying: That May Be True in Theory, but It Is of No Use in Practice. In: Kant I. Works in 6 Vols. (Vol. 4, part 2, pp. 59–106). Мoscow: Mysl’ (Russian translation).

25. Kant I. (1965b) The Metaphysics of Morals. In: Kant I. Works in 6 Vols. (Vol. 4, part 2, pp. 107–439). Мoscow: Mysl’ (Russian translation).

26. Kant I. (1992) Über den Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugt aber nicht für die Praxis. Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1992 (in German).

27. Kant I. (2003) Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. Hamburg: Felix Meiner (in German).

28. Kant I. (2015) Die drei Kritiken. Köln: Anaconda (in German).

29. Lewis C.T. & Short C. (1878) A New Latin Dictionary. New York: Harper and Brothers.

30. Lotze H. (1884) Grundzüge der praktischen Philosophie. Leipzig: Verlag von C. Birzel (in German).

31. Marx K. (1952) Capital. A Critique of Political Economy (Vol. 1). Moscow: Politizdat (Russian translation).

32. Marx K. (1956) The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. In: Marx К. & Engels F. From the Early Works (pp. 517–642). Moscow: Politizdat (Russian translation).

33. Marx K. (1968) Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte aus dem Jahre 1844. In: Marx K. & Engels F. Werke (Vol. 40, pp. 465–590). Berlin: Dietz (in German).

34. Marx K. (1978) Thesen über Feuerbach. In: Marx K. & Engels F. Werke (Vol. 3, pp. 533–535). Berlin: Dietz (in German).

35. Riedel M. (2011) Between Tradition and Revolution: The Hegelian Transformation of Political Philosophy (W. Wright, Trans.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

36. Schmidt J. (1986) A Raven with a Halo: The Translation of Aristotle’s ‘Politics’. History of Political Thought. Vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 295–319.

37. Schütrumpf E. (2014) The Earliest Translations of Aristotle’s ‘Politics’ and the Creation of Political Terminology. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink.

38. Sherman C.R. (1995) Imaging Aristotle. Verbal and Visual Representation in Fourteenth-Century France. Berkeley: University of California Press.

39. Woodward W.R. (2015) Hermann Lotze: An Intellectual Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.