Publications [#342473] of Malachi H. Hacohen

Book Chapters

1. Hacohen, MH. "Karl Popper, the open society, and the cosmopolitan democratic empire." The Impact of Critical Rationalism: Expanding the Popperian Legacy through the Works of Ian C. Jarvie January, 2018. 189-205.
   (last updated on 2024/04/25)

   Abstract:
   In The Open Society, written in New Zealand during WWII, Karl Popper invented the cosmopolitan democratic empire as an antidote to ethnonationalism. Popper, a non-Marxist socialist, protested that the nation-state was a charade and, in his portrayal of classical Athens, merged the images of Austria-Hungary and the British Commonwealth into a utopian democratic empire. The empire was an open society that would provide a home to the assimilated Jewish intelligentsia, which was excluded on racial grounds from the European nation-states. Jews were not to expect, however, recognition of their culture: Assimilation remained the best solution to the Jewish Question. Emerging from Jewish anxiety, Popper’s cosmopolitanism formed a marvelous imperial vision that failed to allay his own fears of antisemitism.