Clearing up Poppers' paradox of Tolerance.

in philosophy •  4 years ago 

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Well, this is popping up again. Popper's head would explode if he saw this gross misrepresentation if he were still alive.

This seems to imply that we should ban expression of intolerant ideas. That's not he was saying at all.

From the actual Paradox of Tolerance, which is conveniently omitted from the meme:

"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 unwise."

To my mind and, I believe Popper would have agreed, it would be paradoxical to call oneself tolerant by immediately and capriciously supporting the banning of intolerant expression.

The tolerant, however, reserve the right to respond to intolerance with intolerance, with force if necessary.

What's necessary is a subject to be discussed; but, I'm convinced that no tolerant person will respond to intolerant speech with violence quickly or capriciously. Punching a guy for wearing a MAGA hat isn't a tolerant person punching an intolerant person; at best that's an intolerant person punching an intolerant person who is more tolerant than the person doing to punching.

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