Popper

Historicism and Its Poverty

de Raphael, Frederic

The callous savageries of Both Marxism and fascism shared a faith in what Karl Popper called "Historicism": the belief that the future could be predicted and that man had to align himself with its bloody progress. Totalitarianism, Popper maintained, was based on ideas implicit in western philosophy, from Plato to Hegel and Marx. At a time when Communism and fascism were luring to many intellectuals, Popper attacked their philosophical roots with reasonableness and skepticism.