Mao's "On Practice"

Study questions: 

1. Mao begins by stating “first of all, a Marxist regards human productive activity as the most fundamental practice determining all other human activities.” What makes production so fundamental, and how is engagement in production related to the development of knowledge? 

2. Mao then moves on to the “process of cognition.” What does this process entail? What is the relationship between perceptual and rational knowledge? 

3. Mao provides a few historical examples of the learning process he has outlined. What are they? What are some of your own examples of this process in action? 

4. What is rationalism? What is empiricism?

5. What is the relationship between knowledge and transformation, and what implications does this have for revolutionary practice? 

6. How are the currents of right opportunism and adventurism two sides of the same coin? Where can we see these lines of thought today? 

7. Near the conclusion of this piece, Mao states “the struggle of the proletariat and revolutionary people in changing the world consists of carrying out the following tasks: to reconstruct the external world; to reconstruct their own subjective world, that is, to remold their faculty of knowing; and to change the relations between the subjective and external worlds.”What is your take on this statement? How can we as revolutionary people use this notion to inform our own practice?