A philosophy’s intellectual sources do not constitute its essential content

Evidence

The elements of Spinoza, Feuerbach, Hegel, French materialism, etc., are in no way essential parts of the philosophy of praxis, nor can that philosophy be reduced to those elements. What is interesting is precisely the transcending of the old philosophies, the new synthesis or the elements of a new synthesis and the way of conceiving philosophy. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1645

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes ‘origins’ from ‘constituent parts’ of a philosophy — a key methodological distinction relevant to how Gramsci frames theory generally.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s toolkit goal: how foundational theory is assembled from prior vocabulary without being reducible to it — useful for how Islamophobia readings will build on Orientalism etc.