Re: Marxism= Understand the World to Change it!

[cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Carrol Cox)]

    Here is a case in which accuracy of quotation does make a difference. Marx
did not say that the point of understanding the world is to change it. He
said Philosophers have tried to understand the world but the point is to
change it. (This is not strictly accurate either, but it carries my point
here.) He said *nothing* about Understanding leading to changing. If he
makes any connection between understanding and changing it is the opposite:
the point of changing the world is to understand it. Not really, but close.
The *only* way to understand the world is by striving to change it. (Under-
standing is rooted in the attempt, not necessarily the success of that
effort.) The proposition is more epistemological than ethical.

    The proposition that one "should" use one's understanding to try
to change the world is probably accurate, it just doesn't happen to
be the focus of this particular Thesis on Feuerbach.
    Carrol


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