my new favorite word: Praxis

Praxis means the combination of theory and practice. First you decide what it is best to do, which is good, and then you do it, which is also good. So praxis is really good all round. On the other hand, if you decide what it is best to do, but fail to do it, then this isn't really that good. And if you don't decide what it is best to do, but just do whatever, then that isn't really very good either. And to boot, like all good words "praxis" is actually Greek. Thus it is not surprising that the Greek philosopher Aristotle discusses praxis in his Nicomachean Ethics*.

If you actually think that philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle contemplated merely, without doing anything, then please consider whether founding the Academy or the Lyceum were practical enterprises. Unfortunately many of the heirs to philosophy were not so keen on this whole idea of combining theory and practice, and some (neo-platonist christians... grr) positively shunned it. Happily for us we can skip forward to Mr. Marx, who kindly points this out, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it." Unfortunately most people don't really think that it worked out so well for Mr. Marx, and so philosophy has largely returned to inconsequential contemplation.

* Note: If you have not read Aristotle's Ethics, and you want to consider yourself as half educated or even a quarter informed, then you really need to. My choice of translation is the one by Terence Irwin.