Theory and Practice

Abstract

The idea of the merging of theory and practice has a central place in Marxist thought. Its origins are to be found in the discussions among the Young Hegelians in the 1840s, and especially in a book published in 1838 by August Cieszkowski, Prolegomena zur Historiosophie.1 Cieszkowski argued that as men had now attained, through Hegel’s philosophy, Absolute Knowledge, the next stage in their development could only be the application of this knowledge in order to transform the world: … philosophy has reached so classical a point that it has to transcend itself and thus to yield up the Universal Empire to another … to practical social life.… From now on, the absolutely practical, that is, social action and life within the state … will be the Ultimate … Being and thought have to perish in action, art and philosophy in social life, in order to re-emerge and to unfold in the ultimate form of social life.2