Popper’s scathing critique of three pillars of Western thought-Plato, Hegel, and Marx-was not readily accepted. The subject matter did not help his cause. He emigrated to New Zealand.ĭistance from Europe allowed him to write The Open Society, though a paper shortage during the war made it impossible for him to find a publisher. Staring down the barrel of World War II, however, Karl’s ancestry did not protect him from growing anti-Semitic sentiments.
Being secular they were not concerned with religion, yet were occupied with social positioning. His family was Jewish but converted to Lutheranism shortly before his birth. Karl’s father, Simon, was literally a Bohemian, as in being born in Bohemia, providing a fitting parallel to Karl’s upbringing. But when is enough enough? When is too much really too much? Vienna-born philosopher Karl Popper devoted a lot of time to this critical question, and his response, published over seven decades ago in the classic, The Open Society and Its Enemies, is worth revisiting.
We’re well aware of the dangers of trolling and the growing lack of critical thinking in an age of short attention spans. Ok, it’s been asked for thousands of years, but online communications have made it all the more pertinent. Does free speech have a limit? This question has been repeatedly asked since the birth of the Internet.
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