Philosophy
and Religion, Part 8b
Not Activism, Not Blah
Action / Reflection =
word = work = praxis
Sacrifice of action =
verbalism
Sacrifice of
reflection = activism
What
separates communist philosophy in particular, and humanist philosophy in
general, from other kinds of philosophy, is that we humanists see life as an interaction
between the human Subject and the Objective universe. Others either believe in
pure (subjective) will, or in pure (objective) fate.
This
communist philosophy is not a compromise; nor is it an artificial “middle way”.
It sees a dialectical unity-and-struggle-of-opposites.
The human
Subject defines the universe, and the universe contains the human Subject.
In chapter
3 of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire manages to express all this with
immense power, and then to develop it into a praxis (theory-and-practice),
which is dialogue.
Here are
the first few paragraphs:
“As we attempt to analyze dialogue as a human
phenomenon, we discover something which is the essence of dialogue itself: the
word. But the word is more than just an instrument which makes dialogue
possible; accordingly, we must seek its constitutive elements. Within the word
we find two dimensions, reflection and action, in such radical interaction that
if one is sacrificed - even in part - the other immediately suffers. There is
no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word
is to transform the world.
“An unauthentic word, one which is unable to
transform reality, results when dichotomy is imposed upon its constitutive
elements. When a word is deprived of its dimension of action, reflection
automatically suffers as well; and the word is changed into idle chatter, into
verbalism, into an alienated and alienating “blah." It becomes an empty
word, one which cannot denounce the world, for denunciation is impossible
without a commitment to transform, and there is no transformation without
action.
Activism is action for action’s sake, making
dialogue impossible
“On the other hand, if action is emphasized
exclusively to the detriment of reflection, the word is converted into
activism. The latter - action for action's sake - negates the true praxis and
makes dialogue impossible. Either dichotomy, by creating unauthentic forms of
existence, creates also unauthentic forms of thought which reinforce the
original dichotomy.
“Human existence cannot be silent nor can it be
nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which men and women
transform the world. To exist humanly is to name the world, to change it. Once
named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires
of them a new naming. Human beings are not built in silence, but in word, in
work, in action-reflection.
“But while to say the true word - which is
work, which is praxis - is to transform the world, saying that word is not the
privilege of some few persons, but the right of everyone. Consequently no one
can say a true word alone - nor can she say it for another, in a prescriptive
act which robs others of their words.”
- The above is to introduce the original reading-text: Pedagogy of The Oppressed, Chapter 3, 1970, Freire, Part 1 and Part 2.
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