Issue #47

Abstract: The problem of practice has accompanied philosophy throughout its history. The results of the work of European philosophy on the ancient Greek πρᾶξις (“action”, “activity”) are reflected in philosophical dictionaries. Nevertheless, philosophers again and again return to clarifying the semantic field of the word “practice”, emphasizing its ambiguity. The question of practicality is put at the forefront at certain moments in history as a search for the conditions of effectiveness and effect of philosophical thinking. The fundamental characteristics that determined the epistemological uniqueness of practical philosophy were first proposed in antiquity. Traditionally, practical philosophy examines action, deed, and the distinction between types of activity. Most often, a general definition of “practice” was achieved by comparing it with “theory”. In Aristotle, the sphere of thought and action, which constitutes the ethical and political life of man, is related to theory and poiesis. The transformation of the Aristotelian category of “praxis” in Marxism through Kantian and post-Kantian problems led to the understanding of practice as a purposeful activity designed to change the world. Theoretical gaps in the understanding of practice became the subject of close attention of Alexander Pavlovich Ogurcov. Behind them, he discovered gaps in the understanding of reason. In his doctoral dissertation of 1967, he traced the path taken by Western philosophy from the understanding of practice as a good deed to what the philosopher called the universalization of practice, or, in other words, its banalization. The dissertation was published by S.S. Neretina in 2024 as a memorial monograph dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the philosopher’s death. As will be shown below, its content is not at all outdated.