shijian-renshilun

R — Original Text (Reading)

"To acquire knowledge, you must participate in the practice of transforming reality. To know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. To know the structure and properties of atoms, you must conduct physical and chemical experiments. To know the theory and methods of revolution, you must participate in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates from direct experience." — On Practice (July 1937)

I — Methodology Framework (Interpretation)

1. Cognition comes from practice, not from books, theories or imagination. You can never truly know the taste of a pear without eating it yourself.
2. The cognitive process has two leaps: The first leap is from perceptual cognition (superficial, one-sided, phenomenon-level) to rational cognition (essential, comprehensive, law-level). This does not happen automatically; it requires active processing of "discarding the dross and selecting the essential".
3. The second leap is from rational cognition back to practice — this is the "more important" leap. A theory that is not verified by practice is empty talk. "Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth."
4. The overall process is spiral ascent rather than linear progress: Practice -> Cognition -> Re-practice -> Re-cognition, each cycle gets closer to the truth than the previous one.
5. Two common mistakes: (1) Staying at the perceptual stage — acting without summarizing, always relying on feelings (empiricism); (2) Staying at the rational stage — doing a lot of research but not taking action, engaging in empty theorizing (dogmatism).
6. "Reading is learning, and applying is also learning, and a more important form of learning" — don't wait until you have learned everything to act, but learn while acting.

A1 — Application in the Book (Past Application)

Application 1: Writing Motivation of On Practice — Opposing Two Types of Mistakes

• Problem: In 1937, there were two wrong tendencies within the Party — dogmatists copied Soviet experience without considering China's reality, while empiricists relied only on local experience and rejected theoretical improvement.
• Method Application: Mao Zedong wrote On Practice not for pure philosophy, but to correct these epistemological mistakes in practice. He used the example of "outsiders coming to inspect Yan'an": First seeing the terrain and streets (perceptual) -> "thinking" after collecting materials -> reaching rational judgments -> verifying in practice.
• Conclusion: The correct cognitive path is the infinite cycle of "practice-cognition-re-practice-re-cognition", not a one-time completion.
• Result: On Practice and On Contradiction are listed as the two cornerstones of Mao Zedong's philosophical thought, providing an epistemological foundation for all subsequent methodologies.

Application 2: Learning War in War — Growth Path of Commanders

• Problem: The Red Army was extremely short of experienced military commanders and could not send them to military academies before sending them to the battlefield.
• Method Application: Mao Zedong proposed "learning war in war" — start acting first, accumulate perceptual cognition in actual combat, then summarize and refine it into tactical principles (rational cognition), and then verify and revise them in the next battle.
• Conclusion: "Often, you don't learn first and then act, but act first and then learn; acting is learning."
• Result: The Red Army summarized a complete set of unique tactical systems from guerrilla warfare (the sixteen-character formula, concentrating forces, etc.), which were not learned from books but refined from practice.

A2 — Trigger Scenarios (Future Trigger)

1. Analysis Paralysis/Over-Preparation: The team spends a lot of time doing research, writing plans, and making plans, but delays taking action. Users will say: "I need more data to decide", "Let's do more research", "First make a complete market analysis".
2. Blind Execution/No Summarization: The team keeps acting but never reviews, repeats the same mistakes, and does not accumulate experience. Users will say: "We've done a lot but don't seem to have made progress", "The same problem occurs every time", "Busy but don't know what we're busy with".
3. Entering a New Field: Need to enter an industry with no experience or do something never done before. Users will say: "I don't understand this industry, dare not start", "Can I do it without experience".
4. Disconnection Between Theory and Practice: Learned a lot of methodologies but the implementation effect is poor, or practice is effective but cannot be systematized. Users will say: "I understand the theories but don't know how to apply them", "We do well but can't explain why".
5. Stagnant Iteration: The product/business has gone through many versions but no essential improvement in each version. Users will say: "We've been iterating but have no breakthroughs", "Every change is only superficial".

• vs Seeking Truth from Facts Information Processing Method: This skill = overall framework of cognitive cycle; the latter = specific processing techniques of "perceptual -> rational" in a single cycle
• vs Investigation and Research Method: This skill focuses on cyclic improvement of "action-cognition"; the latter focuses on "how to correctly collect first-hand information"
• vs Principle of Contradiction Specificity: This skill solves "how to obtain correct cognition"; the latter solves "what method to use for different cognitive objects"

E — Executable Steps (Execution)

Step 1: Determine the Current Stage

• Judge which position the user/team is in the cycle: (A) Lack of perceptual cognition (haven't started acting yet)? (B) Have perceptual cognition but not refined (acted but not summarized)? (C) Have rational cognition but not verified (have theory but not practiced)? (D) Have completed one cycle and need to enter the next?
• Completion Standard: Clearly state "Currently in ___ stage, next step should be ___".

Step 2: Promote the Leap (Execute Key Actions)

• If in stage (A): Design a minimum viable practice (MVP/quick experiment) to obtain the first batch of perceptual cognition. Don't pursue perfection; first "take a bite yourself".
• If in stage (B): Arrange a review meeting, use the "Four Steps of Seeking Truth from Facts" to refine laws from experience. Ask: What did we do? Why was it effective/ineffective? What is the underlying law?
• If in stage (C): Develop a verification plan to test the theory in practice. Set clear verification standards: If ___ phenomenon occurs, it means the theory is correct; if ___ occurs, it means revision is needed.
• Stop Point: If perceptual cognition is seriously insufficient (even basic facts are not clear), don't rush to refine laws — first supplement practice.

Step 3: Spiral into the Next Cycle

• After completing one cycle, clearly mark "New cognition in this round" (what new things we have learned compared to the previous round), then design the practice plan for the next round.
• Check if new contradictions or new cognitive blind spots have emerged; if yes, enter the next cycle.
• Completion Standard: Write "Summary of the Nth cycle: We previously thought ___, practice proves ___, the new cognition is ___, in the next round we will verify ___".

B — Boundary (Boundary)

Scenarios Not to Use

1. High-risk One-time Decisions: Some decisions only have one chance (such as major investment, merger and acquisition), cannot "try first then iterate", must be fully prepared and done well in one go.
2. Fields with Mature Methodologies: In fully verified standardized operations (such as basic programming, financial accounting), learning mature methods directly is much more efficient than "gaining true knowledge from practice" from scratch.
3. Pure Theoretical/Academic Research: Some cognitive activities are inherently rational work (mathematical proof, logical reasoning), and do not need to be verified in practice every time.

Failure Modes (from Counterexamples)

• Dogmatism(ce01): Starting from rationality but not returning to practice — learning a lot of theories but never verifying them, or insisting on theories when facts contradict them. Essentially, only the first leap exists without the second.
• Empiricism(ce02): Always staying at the perceptual stage — doing a lot of things but not summarizing or refining, "I succeeded by doing this before" but not analyzing why. Essentially, only the second leap exists without the first.
• Adventurism(ce10): Rushing in without even the perceptual cognition stage — acting without analyzing subjective and objective conditions, "only wanting to act vigorously, full of fantasies". Essentially, forcing the start without having the starting point of the cycle.

Author's Blind Spot

• Mao Zedong emphasized that "practice is the criterion for testing truth", but in some periods (such as the Great Leap Forward), he did not respect practice feedback — when practice results contradicted theories, he chose to modify data rather than revise theories. Lesson: The effectiveness of practical epistemology depends on whether you are truly willing to accept the negative conclusions of practice.

Related skills

• Contradiction Analysis Method (composes-with): Practical epistemology provides the overall framework of cognitive cycle, and contradiction analysis method is the core analysis tool in this cycle — discovering problems in practice, diagnosing problems with contradiction analysis, and returning to practice for verification.
• Seeking Truth from Facts Information Processing Method (composes-with): The Four Steps of Seeking Truth from Facts (discard the dross and select the essential, eliminate the false and retain the true, connect the parts into a whole, and move from the surface to the essence) are the specific operation techniques of the leap from "perceptual cognition → rational cognition" in practical epistemology.
• Learning War in War (composes-with): "Learning war in war" is the specific operation principle of practical epistemology in the contradiction of "action vs learning" — don't learn first then act, but learn while acting.