[AFU General] karl marx: 3rd thesis on feuerbach

[Christian Whittall]

On 24 February 2008, the Anarchist Free
University held our first Radical Pedagogy Workshop on Marxism and
Education. One of the first texts we examined together was Marx's 3rd
Thesis on Feuerbach:

The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and
upbringing, and that, therefore, changed men are products of changed
circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men who change
circumstances and that the educator must himself be educated. Hence
this doctrine is bound to divide society into two parts, one of which
is superior to society. 

The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-change [Selbstveränderung] can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice.

In
the workshop, we worked as a team to try to unpack these dense but very
powerful sentences and sought for some meaning that could be applied to
our radical educational practice at the AFU. What follows are some of
the questions we discussed. We invite you, regardless of whether or not
you came to the workshop, to post comments, ask questions, answer
questions, or just read what others have posted.

What is
Marx criticizing in the first sentence? What might the 'materialist
doctrine' be that 'forgets' the productive role humans have in their
circumstances?What does Marx mean by 'the educator must himself be educated'?
Why should this 'forgetfulness' necessarily 'divide society into two parts'? How can one be 'superior to society'?What, then, is 'revolutionary practice' in this context? How does this relate to education?What sort of activities are there where self-change and change of circumstances coincide? 

_________________________________________________________________

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.mailman.anarchistu.org/pipermail/general/attachments/20080227/1e3451b9/attachment.htm