A philosophy becomes historical and living only through contact with the simple

Evidence

The question posed here was the one we have already referred to, namely this: is a philosophical movement properly so called when it is devoted to creating a specialised culture among restricted intellectual groups, or rather when, and only when, in the process of elaborating a form of thought superior to “common sense” and coherent on a scientific plane, it never forgets to remain in contact with the “simple” and indeed finds in this contact the source of the problems it sets out to study and to resolve? Only by this contact does a philosophy become “historical”, purify itself of intellectualistic elements of an individual character and become “life”. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1189

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Defines what makes a ‘properly so-called’ philosophical movement: unity between intellectuals and the simple, grounding theory in practice.
• XREF: This is the core organic-intellectual/theory-practice mechanism that later Islamophobia readings will need — connects forward to hegemony and the organic intellectual.

Related

• Philosophy becomes historically true by diffusing into the popular mentality. (similarity 0.87)
• Philosophy’s history must include mass worldviews and ruling groups, not just philosophers (similarity 0.85)
• Philosophical truths are historically conditioned yet avoid relativism. (similarity 0.84)
• Philosophical elaboration must be performed within the history of philosophy (similarity 0.84)
• Philosophy of praxis elevates the masses rather than preserves their common sense. (similarity 0.84)
• Philosophy and history are indivisible, forming a single bloc (similarity 0.83)
• The dialectic only functions when philosophy of praxis stands as an integral philosophy. (similarity 0.83)
• Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis links theory inseparably to practice and action (similarity 0.82)
• A philosophy’s intellectual sources do not constitute its essential content (similarity 0.82)
• Separating philosophy from history and politics reduces it to metaphysics (similarity 0.82)
• Reducing a philosophy to a systematic sociology is naive metaphysics. (similarity 0.82)
• A philosophy’s historical worth is its practical effect on society (similarity 0.82)
• Specialized philosophical jargon widens the divide between high culture and the popular masses. (similarity 0.81)
• Thought requires active engagement with a modifying cultural environment to be real (similarity 0.81)
• Philosophy of praxis must be understood as historical methodology. (similarity 0.80)