The Political Philosophy of Karl Raimund Popper - 1139 Words

Karl Raimund popper (1902 to 1994) was an influential philosopher of science, who philosophized about society, in much the same way he philosophized about science-in a critical spirit. His personal experience, as an Austrian Jew in the days of the Nazi Anschluss (meaning link up or annexation in the German language), provided him a wealth of firsthand experience and insights into the nature of totalitarian governments. At a point in poppers life he was an enthusiast of Marxist socialism, but that enthusiasm was short lived as he soon began to develop a skeptical turn of mind towards Marxist socialism. He questioned the rationale in the sacrifice of human life which communism found necessary to its cause, after the leaders of the†¦show more content†¦They also postulated a broad range of social teleological theories generally called historic-ism in which society was forced into accepting a unilateral version of reality which was wholly certain as to it present state and future outcomes. In the defense of the liberal tradition in politics Popper developed certain philosophical positions, to counter the notions by those philosophers who advocated such illiberal philosophical ideas that could only lead to the creation of closed societies for the world. The philosophical positions which popper advanced included a twin-edged liberalism†, in the sense of peacefully tolerating the proponents of closed societies in free societies, as long as they stuck to verbal arguments only, and social engineering by a piecemeal† or (gradual) approach to social reforms. Popper considered the west and the rest of the world endangered by the influence of such thought that promoted a historicist or collectivist frame of social thought. This sort of frame for social thought he argued could only lead to the establishment of authoritarian and totalitarian forms of government, which would in turn suppress and constrain the liberties and lives of people in the long run. The defense of the liberal tradition in