Is Karl Popper an example of “intellectually dishonest anti-Marxism”?
‘The uses and abuses of Jesus’ – the second chapter of Jack Conrad’s newly published Fantastic reality – provides a useful overview of constantly evolving relationships between religious beliefs, institutions and society (Weekly Worker December 20). Jack tells us that “the cause of the working class needs the unvarnished truth about the past in all its concreteness, class antagonisms and world-historic personalities revealed in all their complexity”. However, he continues: “In contrast our rulers prefer Karl Popper’s intellectually dishonest anti-Marxism” – a comment better fitting the writings of the late CPGB/Stalinist ‘philosopher’, Maurice Cornforth.1 The work of Karl Popper has such broad implications and applications in today’s academic world, it is worthy of much more serious attention than the occasional snide comments frequently found in the Weekly Worker, of which this is the latest. In these brief comments, I will address aspects that will impinge upon the experience of any
