What is the “Philosophy of Praxis”?

Abstract

This paper investigates the idea of “the philosophy of praxis” discussed by Andrew Feenberg in his recent book, a revision of his 1981 book on Lukács, Marx, and the Sources of Critical Theory. I argue that although his account is important and valuable, there are aspects of the philosophy of praxis that he fails sufficiently to develop, including especially the very significance of “practice” itself (which Marx calls “labor”). Feenberg asserts that the realm of nature, unlike that of history, is “essentially” reified, and that therefore dereifying practices have no relevance in the natural realm. I argue that focusing on material practice overcomes the nature/history dualism, and that dereification has a role to play throughout the single material world that we inhabit.