(1) Practice view Practice is the basis of cognition, and practice plays a decisive role in cognition.

1. Practice is the source of knowledge.

(1) Practice puts forward the need of knowledge generation. People's cognitive activities are produced to meet the needs of practice and to solve and complete the problems and tasks put forward by practice. The task of scientific research and the topic of scientific work are put forward by the needs of practice and are carried out around the needs of human practice.

(2) Practice provides the possibility for the formation of knowledge and turns this possibility into reality. Practice directly and realistically links the subject and the object, so that the subject can obtain real and reliable information from the object. Only by practicing this intermediary can objective things be transformed into the cognitive object and content of the subject. The various ways of thinking used by the subject to deal with object information also come from practice. As an objective material activity, practice is carried out according to certain laws. Over time, this regular activity will accumulate in people's minds and form various thinking modes, such as logical formats and so on. Lenin said: "After repeated hundreds of millions of times, human practice has been fixed in human consciousness in a logical way. It is precisely because of the repetition of hundreds of millions of times that these formulas have the consolidation and axiomatization of the views of our ancestors. "

2. Practice is the driving force of cognitive development.

(1) With the development of practice, new topics of cognition are constantly put forward to promote the development of cognition. Engels said: "Once the society has a technological need, this need will push science forward by more than ten universities."

(2) Practice provides necessary conditions for cognitive development. On the one hand, the development of practice constantly reveals more and more characteristics of the objective world and accumulates more and more rich experience materials for solving new cognitive problems; On the other hand, practice provides increasingly complete material means for continuously strengthening the cognitive ability of the subject. Finally, practice and exercise to improve the cognitive ability of the subject. Engels said: "The wisdom of human beings develops according to how people learn to change nature".

3. Practice is the standard to test whether knowledge has truth.

People use their own thinking mode to reconstruct the object model in their minds, and deduce unknown properties from this object model, and then test it with practice. When the theoretical prediction is consistent with the actual result of the object, it is proved that the object model reconstructed by his mind-centered wisdom is consistent with the object itself.

4. Practice is the purpose of cognition.

The purpose of cognitive activity is not to know the activity itself, but to better transform the object and guide practice more effectively. The process of knowledge guiding practice and serving practice is the process of realizing the value of knowledge.

Practical viewpoint is the primary and basic viewpoint of Marxist epistemology. To study Marxist epistemology, we must adhere to the viewpoint of practice first, establish the proper authority of practice, respect practice and proceed from reality. Only by respecting practice can we fundamentally ensure that our thoughts and actions conform to the laws of the objective world and effectively transform the world. Only by respecting practice can we effectively overcome subjectivism, prevent fantasy from replacing reality and cut real life with abstract principles.

(2) The concept of cognition.

1. Cognition is counterproductive to practice. The practical activities of human beings are different from the instinctive activities of animals, which are dominated by consciousness. This essential feature of practice determines that it cannot be separated from the guidance of cognition.

2. Cognitive activities and their achievements are relatively independent, and their unique activities and development laws are respected. Once formed, it can react to practice.

3. The guiding role of cognition in practice is manifested in many aspects: (1) Cognition can make the subject know and grasp the regularity of subject and object and their interaction, and guide the subject to consciously engage in activities to transform the world according to objective laws; ⑵ Cognition enables the subject to determine the goals, plans, steps and measures that are in line with both physical needs and objective reality before practical activities, and to predict and plan practical activities; (3) Cognition can make the subject adjust his actions in time according to the changing situation, and guide the subject to choose the best behavior to achieve the goal; (4) Cognition can guide the subject to transform local experience into theory; 5] Understanding can also make the subject realize his own understanding and consciously adjust his activities to meet the needs of transforming the object.

4. There are two situations in which cognition reacts on practice: first, correct cognition guides practice, which will make practice go smoothly and achieve the expected effect; Second, when wrong understanding guides practice, it will have a negative or even destructive effect on practice and make practice fail.

(3) Theoretical viewpoint.

The dynamic reaction of cognition to practice is fully reflected in the great guiding role of theory as an advanced form of cognition to practice. First of all, theory is an understanding of the nature and laws of things, which can and should be ahead of practice and guide the process of practical activities; Secondly, scientific theory can predict the future and correct the practice direction; Third, scientific theory, as a spiritual force, can promote people to innovate in practice. Lenin said: "Without revolutionary theory, there would be no revolutionary movement."

As far as the source and foundation of cognition are concerned, Marxist philosophy emphasizes that practice determines cognition; As far as the function and function of cognition are concerned, Marxist philosophy emphasizes guiding practice with correct cognition and theory; As far as the dialectical relationship between practice and cognition is concerned, Marxist philosophy emphasizes the unity of practice and cognition, which are closely combined and mutually promoted. Mao Zedong said that the unity of theory and practice is a Marxist style of study and an important part of the Party's ideological line.

(4) The concept of truth.

1. True and objective.

Truth is a philosophical category that marks the consistency between subjective and objective, and it is the correct reflection of objective things and their laws in human consciousness. The form is subjective, but the content is objective. The objectivity of truth is embodied in:

(1) The root of people's understanding can only be and must be the objective material world.

(2) The content reflected by truth is independent of people's subjective will. Whether an understanding is true or not can only be tested through social practice.

There can only be one truth about the same thing, not more than one. Truth can only be the consistency between cognition and objective object. This is also independent of human will.

(4) In class society, people have class nature, and people's understanding and utilization of truth is always influenced and restricted by class interests. This is a class attitude towards truth, not the class nature of truth itself.

2. The absoluteness and relativity of truth.

The absoluteness of truth has two meanings: first, any truth contains objective contents that exist independently of the subject and conform to objective things and their development laws, and is absolute and unconditional. Second, the ability of human beings to understand the objective material world embodied by truth is infinite. Every step forward in understanding is a further approach to the infinitely developing material world, and it is also unconditional and absolute.

Relativity of truth means that under certain historical stages and conditions, human understanding of the objective material world and its laws is relative and conditional, and always limited and incomplete. This also has two meanings: first, as far as the breadth of knowledge is concerned, any truth is a stage and part of the infinite development of the objective material world, which is conditional and approximate. Second, from the depth of understanding, any truth can only reach a certain degree and a certain degree of correct understanding of things.

3. Truth is concrete.

Truth is not abstract. Any truth is the unity of objectivity, absoluteness and relativity, that is, any truth is objective truth, absolute truth and relative truth.

(2) Truth is conditional. Any truth has its specific object, scope and conditions. If we go beyond this specific provision, truth will become fallacy.

Truth is a process. The concrete existence of truth is a process. Truthfully regard truth as an endless approach from subject to object and from subjective to objective, as a historical development process, rather than a static state that will never change once it is reached.

Only practice is the only criterion for testing truth.

The reason why practice is the only criterion for testing truth is determined by the characteristics of practice and the essence of truth.

The essence of truth determines that only practice can test truth.

The characteristics of practice determine that only practice can be the criterion for testing truth.

Second, the basic principles

(1) Principles of perceptual knowledge and rational knowledge.

1. perceptual cognition

Perceptual cognition is the primary stage of cognition, and it is a one-sided understanding of things, external relations and things produced by objective things directly acting on human senses on the basis of practice.

Intuition and directness are the characteristics of perceptual knowledge. There are three forms of perceptual knowledge, namely feeling, perception and representation.

2. Rational understanding

Compared with perceptual knowledge, rational knowledge is the advanced stage of knowledge, which is people's abstraction and generalization of perceptual knowledge materials and their understanding of the essence, totality and internal relations of things.

Abstraction and indirectness are the characteristics of rational cognition. There are three forms of rational knowledge, namely concept, judgment and reasoning.

3. The dialectical relationship between perceptual knowledge and rational knowledge

Dialectical materialist epistemology holds that perceptual knowledge and rational knowledge are two different stages in the same cognitive process. The relationship between them is dialectical unity and based on practice.

(1) Rational knowledge depends on perceptual knowledge. Various forms of rational knowledge are formed on the basis of perceptual knowledge. Without the sensory materials provided by perceptual knowledge and the refining and summary of sensory materials, the theoretical system of concept, judgment, reasoning and its composition cannot be formed.

⑵ Perceptual knowledge needs to be deepened and developed into rational knowledge. Perceptual knowledge is a superficial and one-sided understanding of things, which reflects the phenomena and external relations of things, and has not yet penetrated into the essence and development law of things. The task of cognition is to grasp the law of the development of things to guide the practical activities of transforming the world, which can only be realized when perceptual knowledge deepens and develops into rational knowledge.

⑶ Perceptual knowledge and rational knowledge depend on each other and penetrate each other. The direction and level of perceptual knowledge are restricted by the rational knowledge structure, values and goals of the cognitive subject, and the result of perceptual knowledge must also be expressed through rational forms such as concept, judgment and reasoning. Rational understanding is always based on perceptual materials, and at the same time takes perceptual forms such as language and symbols as material means.

(B) two leaps in understanding

1. A leap from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge

The leap from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge is the first of two leaps in knowledge, which is the basis for realizing the leap from rational knowledge to practice, the qualitative change in the process of knowledge, and the process of reaching the essence through phenomena to obtain regular knowledge.

The leap from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge requires two conditions: one is to possess rich and true perceptual materials as much as possible. Secondly, the perceptual materials are scientifically analyzed, and the perceptual materials are analyzed by scientific methods, and the essence is seen through phenomena, so as to achieve a rational understanding of things.

2. A leap from rational understanding to practice

The necessity and importance of the leap from rational knowledge to practice are as follows: (1) From a practical point of view, the leap from rational knowledge to practice is a process in which knowledge guides practice, and understanding the world is to transform the world. Only by returning to practice can rational knowledge guide practice, make knowledge materialized and objective, and achieve the goal of transforming the world. ⑵ From the perspective of cognition, the leap from rational cognition to practice is a process of testing cognition in practice. Only by returning to practice can rational knowledge be tested by practice, revised, supplemented, enriched and developed.

To realize the leap from rational understanding to practice, we must have certain conditions.

First of all, we should proceed from reality and adhere to the principle of combining theory with practice. Rational understanding reflects the essence and laws of things, which are general things, while the problems to be solved in practice are individual and specific things. General and individual, theory and practice are both related and different. We must proceed from reality, combine general theory with concrete practice, and analyze the specific situation, instead of mechanically applying theoretical principles regardless of the actual situation.

Secondly, we should combine the understanding of the nature and laws of objective things with the understanding of the subject's own needs and interests to form a correct and reasonable view of practice. The fundamental purpose of transforming theory into practice is to change the existing form of things to meet people's needs. Therefore, it is necessary to make a scientific evaluation of the value of the object, that is, the usefulness of people, on the basis of the factual understanding of objective things, and form the ideal object that practical reform should achieve in the concept according to the scale of objective things (external scale) and people's own scale (internal scale), that is, form the practical concept. This is a decisive link from rationality to practice and from theory to reality.

Thirdly, we should organically combine the correctness of theory with the feasibility of reality and seek specific ways to achieve the ideal goal.

Finally, the theory must be mastered by the masses and transformed into their conscious actions. In order to finally turn practical ideas and action plans into reality, we must also practice them through human activities. The masses are the main body of practice, and only when the theory is mastered by the masses can it become a material force to transform the world. In order to make the theory recognized by the masses and internalized into conscious action, we must adopt correct practical methods, such as persuasion and education, mass line, and gradual popularization of typical experiments.

(C) the specific historical unity of understanding and practice

1. The overall development process of human cognition

The contradiction between subjective and objective is the basic contradiction in the process of cognition. The dialectical movement process of cognition is the development process of the contradiction between subjectivity and objectivity, and between cognition and practice, that is, the process in which this contradiction is constantly generated, solved, solved and generated. In this process, the concrete historical unity of subjectivity and objectivity, cognition and practice has been realized.

2. The concrete historical unity of cognition and practice.

The concrete historical unity of subjectivity and objectivity, cognition and practice means that this unity is concrete rather than abstract, that is, subjective cognition should be combined with objective practice at a certain time, place and condition; This unity is historical, not static, that is, in a specific historical development stage, subjective understanding should be consistent with objective practice.

The historical unity of theory and practice, subjectivity and objectivity deserves attention. This is closely related to seeking truth from facts, materialism monism and keeping pace with the times.

(4) Congenital factors and acquired practice principles.

The fact that knowledge comes from practice does not deny the influence of the difference in physiological quality between human brain and senses on knowledge. But people's physiological quality is only the material condition of people's practice and understanding, not the practice and understanding itself. The understanding of people and the formation of talent differences do not play a decisive role, and the decisive reason for the differences is the acquired social practice. Marx once quoted a sentence from Adam Smith to explain this problem: "He clearly saw:' The talent difference between individuals is actually far from what we imagined. These very different talents, which seem to distinguish adults from different occupations, are not so much the cause of division of labor as the result of division of labor. The original difference between porters and philosophers is much smaller than that between domestic dogs and hounds, and the gap between them is caused by the division of labor. "The so-called differences in human talent are dug up by the division of labor, and are caused by the status, field, breadth and depth of practice, rather than being born.

(5) The principle of direct experience and indirect experience.

Knowledge comes from practice and does not deny the necessity and importance of learning indirect experience. Because the life and ability of the specific subject are limited, it is impossible to practice everything personally, and the theory or knowledge itself has historical inheritance, so the subject can and should gain indirect experience through reading or teaching, which is a necessary way to develop human knowledge, and its significance is fully reflected in Newton's famous saying: "If I can see farther than others, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants." But indirect experience comes from the practice of predecessors or others in the final analysis, and people should accept indirect experience more or less on the basis of some direct experience, that is, practice. Only by combining indirect experience with direct experience can we have more complete knowledge.