Philosophy, Communication, Change

Marx's rendering of the Theory-Practice contrast as 'interpret the world' vs. 'change the world' abstracts from Philosophy as the content of communication, e. g. of a book. Hence, the formulation abstracts from the effects of each type of project on the audience of a work. In other words, it abstracts from the social function of Philosophy. Now, from the perspective of Communication, his classifications get complicated. For example, while Epistemology and Political Philosophy are typically categorized under Theory and Practice, respectively, the presentation of a method for establishing Knowledge, e. g. the Cartesian, is Practical, and an outline of an ideal polis, e. g. a City of God, can be Theoretical. Furthermore, the recognition of the communicative phase of Philosophy opens up a distinction between changing the world and changing the people who, only after reading a book, change the world. Now, while Marx generally treats the two changes as concomitant, they he overlooks the significant case in which they are not--the possibility of a Socialist society being inhabited by members whose mode of Consciousness is essentially egocentric, i. e. a Phenomenological "for me" mode. He, thus, overlooks the possibility of an implied distinction between changing the world and changing people, i. e. changing their mode of Consciousness from selfish to universal, as well as the possibility that the latter change has ultimate priority over the former.