← See the axis · The point of philosophy

Transform, not merely interpret

A philosophy that leaves the world as it is betrays its task: to think truly is to work to change what must be changed.

Supports Changing the world

Marx · Theses on Feuerbach, XI · 1845

1. No thought floats outside the world: it is born of social conditions and, in turn, acts upon them, shoring them up or shaking them. There is no neutral standpoint above the fray.
2. So contenting oneself with understanding leaves intact the dominations one describes: professed neutrality always benefits the order in place. Interpreting the world in a thousand ways has left it as it was.
3. The soundness of an idea is proven not in books but in practice: it is by changing the world that it is tested, and that one frees those whom an unjust order crushes.

Therefore So philosophy's task is not to contemplate but to transform: a thought is judged by what it frees, and to think without acting is to consent.

How far does this reasoning convince you?