Praxis

Praxis is an old and much-used philosophical term employed by nearly every major Western philosopher, including Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel, and Karl Marx. Because of its long history, praxis has a variety of definitions, almost all of which describe a relationship between theory and practice. While the assumptions in these definitions range from a complete separation between theory and practice to a complete conflation of the two, modern philosophers tend to favor a definition that highlights the interdependence of thought and action. In fact, within the past 20 years, contemporary educators have embraced the term praxis, using it to mean reflective practice, or a union between thought and action.

Proponents of praxis believe that theory should be grounded in practice in order to keep theory applicable, pragmatic, and meaningful. As such, praxis refers to the process by which a theory or lesson becomes part of a lived experience. Rather than a lesson being simply absorbed at the intellectual level, ideas are tested and experienced in the real world, followed by an opportunity for reflective contemplation. In this way, abstract concepts are connected with lived reality.

For Aristotle, praxis is guided by a moral disposition to act truly and rightly; a concern to further human well-being and the good life. For Aristotle, praxis meant reflective action informed by phronesis, [Page 1162]the prudential reasoning and practical skill that enable a person to transform a tradition's meaning into the immediate social context. In praxis there can be no prior knowledge of the right means by which one realizes the end in a particular situation. For the end itself is only specified in deliberating about the means appropriate to a particular situation. The way to achieve something depends on what one wants to achieve, and vice versa. There is a continual interplay between ends and means. This process involves interpretation, understanding, and application in “one unified process.” Praxis is not simply action based on reflection. It is action that embodies certain qualities. These include a commitment to human well-being and the search for truth and respect for others. It is the action of people who are free, who are able to act for themselves.

Moreover, praxis is always risky. It is about both production and “right conduct.” It is informed action, as well as politically and ethically conscious action that in its functioning overlaps practical and productive knowledge. It requires that a person make “wise and prudent practical judgments” about how to act in any particular situation. As such, word and action, action and reflection, theory and practice are all facets of the same idea. This action is not merely the doing of something, what Aristotle described as poiesis, and Paulo Freire later referred to as activism. Poiesis is about acting upon, doing to: It is about working with objects. Praxis, however, is creative: It is other-seeking and dialogic. Praxis seeks to get at the interaction of deed and thought, the holistic embodiment of meaning. It is correctly understood as the critical relationship between theory and practice wherein each is dialectically influenced and transformed by the other.

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