• About
  • Ongoing
  • Past Works
  • Photos
  • Text
Menu

nelly

  • About
  • Ongoing
  • Past Works
  • Photos
  • Text
download.jpeg

The Spell of Plato (1966)

October 23, 2017

Sir Karl Raimund Popper
The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 1
Note 4 to Chapter 7

Other remarks of Plato’s on the paradoxes of freedom and of democracy are: Republic, 564a: ‘Then too much freedom is liable to change into nothing else but too much slavery, in the individual as well as in the state .. Hence it is reasonable to assume that tyranny is enthroned by no other form of government than by democracy. Out of what I believe is the greatest possible excess of freedom springs what is the hardest and most savage form of slavery.’

The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any restraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek. This idea is, in a slightly different form, and with a very different tendency, clearly expressed by Plato.

Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law. and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

Another of the less well-known paradoxes is the paradox of democracy, or more precisely, of majority-rule; i.e. the possibility that the majority may decide that a tyrant should rule. That Plato’s criticism of democracy can be interpreted in the way sketched here, and that the principle of majority-rule may lead to self-contradictions, was first suggested, as far as I know, by Leonard Nelson (cp. note 25 (2) to this chapter). I do not think, however, that Nelson, who, in spite of his passionate humanitarianism and his ardent fight for freedom, adopted much of Plato’s political theory, and especially Plato’s Principle of leadership, was aware of the fact that analogous arguments can be raised against all the different particular forms of the theory of sovereignty.

All these paradoxes can easily be avoided if we frame our political demands the way suggested in section II of this chapter, or perhaps in some such as this. We demand a government that rules according to the principles of equalitarianism and protectionism; that tolerates all who are prepared to reciprocate, i.e. who are tolerant; that is controlled by, and accountable to, the public. And we may add that some form of majority vote, together with institutions for keeping the public well informed, is the best, though not infallible, means of controlling such a government. (No infallible means exist.)

Tags books, quotes, readings
← Wages Against Housework (1975)Herland (1915) →

Things I’m Obsessing now

  1. Atlantis: The Lost Empire

  2. The Queer Art of Failure

  3. Feast: Why Humans Share Food

  4. Dianxi Xiaoge

  5. Rebuilding

  6. Trauma in First Person: Diary Writing During the Holocaust

  7. Tasting History

  8. The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister

  9. Midnight Diner

  10. Millennium

  11. Waiting for the Barbarians

  12. 101 Dalmatians

  13. xxxHOLiC


Own Writings

Archive
  • April 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • September 2024
  • July 2024
  • February 2024
  • November 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • April 2023
  • December 2022
  • May 2022
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017

I can't help if you insist on using my works without my permission, but I can ask and hope that you don't.