The story ofpraxis: Liberation theology's philosophical handmaid

Abstract

To reach an understanding of the philosophical underpinning of liberation theology, the primary task is to come to terms with the idea which crops up so frequently in the writings of its exponents: praxis. To grasp, in turn, the concept of praxis as found in Marxianinfluenced thought, some acquaintance with the history of this word, and idea, is necessary. ' The foundation, as with so much of our philosophical heritage, lies in ancient Greece. Whilst Aristotle can use the term praxis to cover all kinds of activity, such as making things or contemplating the eternal realities, his more characteristic tendency is to keep the word for more specific purposes: to denote men's free activity in political life. Life in the polis combines ethics and politics (as later understood). It requires some kind of understanding, but only that modicum of knowledge which is needful for eupraxia, doing things well. Aristotle concurred with Plato's position in the Statesman: owing to the irregularities, anomoiotetes, of men and actions, there cannot be universally valid rul~s in politics. In political science we must be content with presenting what applies, in approximate fashion, to most cases, and to reach conclusions proportionate to such premises. 1 Political understanding, for Aristotle, is counterposed to philosophical, since only the latter, in contemplating things divine, attains familiarity with what cannot be other than it is and so enjoys the status of knowledge strictly so called. In the course of time this distinction between philosophy and politics was gradually converted into a contrast between theoretical thought and human activity, notably productive activity. It should also be noted that, while Aristotle had a very positive view of the shared life of the polis, such that, for him, the pre-political is hardly more than the pre-human, his