On Practice

On Practice (simplified Chinese: 实践论; traditional Chinese: 實踐論; pinyin: Shíjiànlùn) is one of Mao Zedong's most important philosophical works. Along with On Contradiction, this essay is a part of lectures Mao gave in 1937. It expresses Mao's support for Marxism and attempts to establish a distinctly Chinese brand of communist philosophy. At the time it was written, the Communist Party of China had just endured the Long March and their nationalist foes were still at large. Plus, China was facing a tremendous Japanese threat. Mao hoped to establish himself as the leader of China's communist party in order to unite China and vanquish the Japanese. On Practice was written as a part of this mission, for it gave Mao a more legitimate claim to lead by creating the basis for his communist philosophy, Maoism.

On Practice explains Mao Zedong’s philosophy concerning the acquisition of knowledge. In this text, Mao follows in the footsteps of Marx and Lenin, endorsing the dialectical-materialist philosophy that knowledge is wrought through practice. Mao stresses the understanding of political and cultural life, in addition to the material focus of Marx. With the help of historical and other examples, Mao explains the dialectial-materialist process, breaking it down into comprehensible parts. The process begins with the acquisition of logical knowledge, which happens in three stages, perception, cognition, and conception. Once these steps finish, people must apply their logical knowledge to reality through practice in order to verify the truth-value of their conceptions. True knowledge is logical knowledge that, when practiced, successfully directs people to their desired end. According to Mao, other philosophies fail to recognize the importance of practice, and only through this dialectical-materialism can the Chinese people experience progress.

According to Mao, logical knowledge results from the process of perceiving, cognizing, and conceptualizing. During the stage of perception individuals spend time interacting with the subject of their enquiry, and they merely absorb the impressions their senses are giving them. This stage allows people to become familiar with the matter they are interested in, for as they gather impressions individuals begin to recognize the essential elements of their subject. For instance, an individual observing trees comes to understand that trees do not always bear leaves. They realize birds use some trees as their home. Additionally, useful impressions can be derived from indirect experiences of a phenomenon. According to Mao, an indirect experience is just a direct experience of some other person’s impressions. Therefore, indirect impressions still gather genuine information about a subject. Impressions eventually lead to the second step toward rational knowledge, cognition. At this point, individuals establish some general notions about their subject using the essential aspects that were impressed upon them. From there individuals begin conceptualizing; they use their reason to make judgments with the general notions their impressions supplied. These judgments are pieces of logical knowledge. They can be as mundane as judging that many trees lose their leaves during the winter, and as significant as Mao’s example, the Communist Party of China can defeat their Japanese opposition.

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