Lunić, Anita

Gramsci’s and Kosik’s notions on Philosophy of praxis revisited

e-mail: anitalunic@yahoo.com

In July-August 1967 issue of Yugoslav philosophical magazine Praxis Karel Kosik has published a short article titled »Gramsci i filozofija praxisa« (»Gramsci and the philosophy of praxis«). Even though Kosik has mentioned him in the title, Gramsci’s name appears just three times in the article, all of which in the introductory paragraph. In the mentioned article Kosik mostly summarizes his thoughts on the philosophy of praxis which he had developed in his book Dialectics of the Concrete. A Study on Problems of  Man and World, especially in its final chapter »Praxis and totality«. In the presentation we will address two specific questions. First is the question of how do these two philosophers define praxis as a category and philosophy of praxis. That is, we will examine the differences between Gramsci’s and Kosik’s perspectives on human practice. Second question that we will address is the question of (im)possibility of realization of philosophy of praxis as wholesome philosophical position from their perspectives. To do so we will primarily focus on Kosik’s aforementioned writings and Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. Also, we will relate both Kosik and Gramsci to Yugoslav philosophy of praxis, mostly to the writings of Gajo Petrović.