Product Description

In these compelling interviews given shortly before his death in 1994, Karl Popper warns us against the increasing violence and egoism that threaten our democratic society. Believing that the philosopher has a duty to intervene in politics, he utters a clear call for all of us to rise to the challenge of finding solutions to our environmental problems, preventing the violence engendered by our society, and preserving our democratic system while paving the way for global peace. Now in paperback, The Lesson of This Century reveals the brilliance of Popper's thought on a range of twentieth century topics as he reminds us that our actions are of great consequence in shaping the future of the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #995128 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

About the Author
The late Karl Popper is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest philosophers and most influential thinkers of our time. A wide range of his works are available from Routledge, including most recently, All Life is Problem Solving (1999), Myth of the Framework (1996) and In Search of a Better World (1995).

Customer Reviews

Freedom
In these interviews with Giancarlo Bosetti, Karl Popper gives us a rare appreciation of current political events, like the Cuba crisis of 1962, Gorbachev's Russia, the fall of the Marxist regimes in Eastern Europe or the Balkan problem (ethnic identity as a State doctrine).

His main purpose is individual liberty (freedom of opposition, democracy). The other side of the French Revolution coin, equality, endangers freedom; and if freedom is lost, there will not be equality among the unfree.

This is not to say that there should be absolute freedom. Human beings, and certainly the intellectuals, have moral obligations.
But his hope in intellectual honesty has been bitterly betrayed. The intellectuals invented the most terrible harm: mass exterminations in the name of an idea, a doctrine or a theory.

For Popper, the main problems in the modern world are the search for peace, demographic responsibility (stop the demographic explosion) and good education. At this level, his plea for media censorship is at least controversial. But for him, a message of non-violence is a moral must towards our children.

This book should be read as an example of how one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century proposes solutions for world problems within his philosophical framework and that of other important predecessors like Kant and Mill.
Not to be missed.