Mao's "On Practice"

According to the Marxist theory of knowledge, expounded by Mao in "On Practice", all knowledge arises from social practice, particularly material production, the class struggle and scientific experiment. Knowledge develops in two interconnected stages (a) the perceptual [unclear: stage] - here only external and superficial aspects of a thing are grasped; (b) the logical stage - here concepts, judgements, inferences and theories are formulated; the essence of things is grasped, along with their internal contradictions, their laws and internal relations with other things. The logical stage develops out of the perceptual stage. Once formulated, theories must be reapplied to the practice of changing nature and society - this is dictated by the fact that such theories are formulated to solve practical problems and that their truth can only be determined by that application. There is no such thing as abstract truth, truth is always concrete. The cycle of knowledge is practice, theory, practice.

With this as his basis, Mao Tsetung always insisted that the problems of the Chinese revolution could only be solved by the concrete investigation of Chinese realities. In "Oppose Book Worship". Mao declared: "A Communist Party's correct and unswerving tactics of struggle can in no circumstances be created by a few people sitting in an office; they emerge in the course of mass struggle, that is, through actual experience. Therefore, we must at all times study social conditions and make practical investigations." "It is necessary to study conditions conscientiously and to proceed from objective reality and not from subjective wishes." (Reform Our Study).

In his "Talks at the Yenan Forum on Art and Literature". Mao Tsetung stated pointedly: "In discussing a problem, we should start from reality and not from definitions..... Marxism teaches that in our approach to a problem we should start from objective facts, not from abstract definitions....and we should derive our guiding principles, policies and measures from an analysis of these facts." Unfortunately, many so-called "Marxists" ignore this and confuse Marxism with scholasticism.

This profound belief in the primacy of practice led Mao Tsetung to many of his original contributions to Marxism-Leninism. The mass line practiced by the Chinese Communist Party in its leadership is concrete manifestation of the Marxist theory of knowledge.

According to Mao Tsetung, "all correct leadership is necessarily 'from the masses, to the masses'. This means: take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own, hold fast to them and translate them into action, and test the correctness of these ideas in such action. Then once again concentrate ideas from the masses and once again go to the masses so that the ideas are persevered in and carried through. And so on, over and over again in an endless spiral, with the ideas becoming more correct, more vital and richer each time." (Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership).