Praxis

Abstract

This essay provides a concise review of the meanings of praxis, emphasizing its complex evolution since Aristotle formulated it within a triad of concepts. While the transformation of the concept owes something to Hegel, Marx’s writings in 1844–6 (not fully published until the twentieth century) gave praxis a central role in Left philosophy. Yet this inheritance is complex and uncertain. Notwithstanding many profound elaborations on the philosophy of praxis, the concept remains at once fundamental yet vague, ostensibly materialist yet metaphysical, and therefore worthy of questioning.