Strictly personal

Karl Popper, who was, by all accounts, a man of autocratic temper, was nevertheless a vigorous enemy of dictatorship. His The Open Society and Its Enemies advocated a democracy of dialogue and competition, in which no assertion was valid ex cathedra and no single party could claim to sail on the flagship of History. To minimise delusions of disinterestedness, Popper advocated that critics, of policies and persons, should frankly admit their parti pris. In view of the difficulty of approaching a social or critical problem disembarrassed of preconception, a critic should make a habit of self-scrutiny before offering an “objective”…