Karl Popper: The Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna

by Malachi Haim Hacohen

This intellectual biography recovers the legacy of Karl Popper (1902-1994), the progressive, cosmopolitan, Viennese socialist who combated fascism, revolutionized the philosophy of science, and envisioned the Open Society. Malachi Hacohen draws a compelling portrait of the philosopher, the assimilated Jewish intelligentsia, and the vanished culture of Red Vienna, which was decimated by Nazism. Seeking to rescue Popper from his postwar conservative and anticommunist reputation, Hacohen restores his works to their original Central European contexts and, at the same time, shows that they have urgent messages for contemporary politics and philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography

626 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2000

Reviews

[Paul]

Hacohen's commitment to Popperian liberalism is strong; His scholarly integrity is of the highest order. What emerges, almost despite the author, is a portrait of an intellectual monster and his equally dishonest allies in the London School of Economics:

"Popper and Mises turned out to be prophetic, after all: Socialism didn't work. Not only was Socialism unable to persuade the Proletariat to rise beyond its genetic inability to respond to an incompetent teacher; Socialism itself had an innate tendency to collapse under systematic mortar attacks on a civilian population..."

Full review at: http://theorangepress.com/woid/woid20...

[Craig Bolton]

"Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna by Malachi Haim Hacohen (2002)"

[Frank Spencer]

tells a lot about Popper as a person; insights into his early interest in teaching and learning and into his political philosophy