Okay, let's do this. Buckle up, Socrates-in-training, because we're about to strut into ancient Greek vocabulary like philosophical bosses—with unearned swagger and too many footnotes.

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Poiesis and praxis are both ways humans engage with the world, but they play very different games. One builds things. The other is the game.

🛠 Poiesis – "Making Stuff Like a Cosmic Artisan"

• Comes from the Greek ποιεῖν, "to make" (yes, same root as "poetry").

• This is production, creation, fabrication—the act of bringing something into being that wasn’t there before.

• Think: sculpting a statue, baking a croissant, programming a mediocre app to find people who also pretend to read Zizek.

• It has an end outside itself. The process isn’t the point—the product is.

🔊 Philosopher voice: “In poiesis, the telos lies beyond the act, like the form beyond the marble.”

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🕺 Praxis – "Acting Like You Mean It"

• Comes from the Greek πρᾶξις, "to do" or "action."

• This is action in the human sphere—ethics, politics, living life like it actually matters.

• Unlike poiesis, praxis is an end in itself. You don’t do praxis for something else—you do it because the doing is the meaning.

• Think: speaking truth in the town square, resisting tyranny, or just choosing not to subtweet your ex.

🔊 Philosopher voice: “Praxis is the actualization of virtue—it is life lived deliberately, not merely constructed.”

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🧠 TL;DR for People Who Are Late to the Symposium:

• Poiesis: Making a thing → value is in the result.

• Praxis: Doing a thing → value is in the act.

Or, in modern terms:

• Poiesis is when you write a song to get famous.

• Praxis is when you sing because the revolution needs a soundtrack.