Review Of "Karl Popper: The Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics And Philosophy In Interwar Vienna" By M. H. Hacohen

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

4-1-2001

Published In

Choice

Abstract

To a distinguished list of biographies of philosophers--Ray Monk's Ludwig Wittgenstein (CH, Mar'91) and Bertrand Russell (2001, 2000), Michael Ignatieff's Isaiah Berlin (1998), and Ben Rogers's A.J. Ayer (1999)--must now be added this superbly researched supplement to Popper's own Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography (1976). Hacohen (history, Duke Univ.) convincingly argues that Popper imposed the telos of his mature philosophy on his intellectual development. Situating Popper in the middle of the intellectual, moral, and political debates of Vienna at the turn of the century through the interwar years makes clear his lifelong commitment to assimilationist, "enlightenment" humanistic values. A bit too appreciative of Popper's enormously influential The Open Society and Its Enemies, which was used polemically as a Cold War essay against communism, Hacohen underemphasizes that few scholars think Popper's account of Plato and Hegel is either fair or accurate. Hacohen rightly appreciates Popper's groundbreaking The Logic of Scientific Discovery (German, 1935; English 1959). Popper died in 1994, but Hacohen lets a long epilogue suffice for nearly half his life. A second volume would round out Popper's unequivocal move into metaphysics and his difficult relations with his disciples. Still, this fine biography adds enormously to the understanding of an influential thinker. Belongs in every library.

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