October 3, 2018

Dialectic Materialism: Journal Review

Angelo Cullen L. Yonzon

Philosophy of Practice

In the beginning man is an active being that creates himself in his works, man is part of the

whole/ his world however when man changes due to circumstances and evolution, there came a

time that there is labor, like when man was enslaved by higher beings like leaders of the tribe,

kings and etc. In this time, the split of intellectual and physical work. This now focuses on the

man and contemplates on the self rater than the active man since the role of man is accepted as it

is in the given situation. Philosophy now observes only the being of man.

There were three key concepts in order to understand better what Philosophy of practice is. The

first one is the idealists, where their focus is in the Universal or cosmic “I” that there is a perfect

“being” that is the source of creation and the world and the being of Man. The second concept is

the idea of Hegel about the “World Spirit” where in that man is “estranged” from it and that the

man should be all-embracing and self-conscious and creates himself who he wants to be in the

world. Lastly is the Materialist concept, where it is said that Man is governed by the world and

that we need to contemplate on the object of the world and make use of it in order to make man a

man and that thoughts are only abstraction.

The Philosophy of practice creates a bridge between the idealist, Materialist and Hegel wherein

that man needs to understand himself as the universal I and also relate it with the objects of this

world, thus, Philosophy of practice says that we should accept the fact that we are a universal “I”

and that we need to use Objects of this world to reach the Universal “I” which is being the
perfect state of something and also related to what Hegel says that we should create who we are.

Philosophy of practice is the communion of these three ideas and it suggest that the universal “I”

should be aware of the surroundings which are the objects and that we use these in order to

become who we want to be in a universal aspect.

As I understood Marx, there is no “Man” as an individual Man but “Men” where it is universal

and in common and also says that Man should be understood as a “Genus” wherein we are all in

common and each person is defined by the circumstances around him and that man can also

change these circumstances. The main point is that Man is going through a process of change

through circumstances and that this is to be contemplated and understood, we should act upon it

and stop only contemplating about man but rather also improve as a being. It is said that the

educator must be educated first, this means that before becoming a man you first need to

understand it and once understood it is time to change it and make it better, not only in a fixed

situation like the idealist that there is a cosmic “I” and not only through the views of materialist

where we are changed by the world around us, but by Philosophy of practice, we should connect

these to that yes, the “I” is a universal “I” and we need to understand it together with the objects

or circumstances that is happening now in order to “upgrade” philosophy from just a

contemplative process to being a practical means to develop man, and for Marx since he

understands man should be taken as “Men” we should grow as men in common rather than

focusing in the individual “I”.