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It's a well-known paradox [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
by flatline 8y ago
It's a well-known paradox [0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
- deogeo 8y agoAccording to that 'paradox', tolerant societies could never evolve from intolerant ones.
- hannasanarion 8y agoThat is a complete non-sequitur. Free societies need to oppose those who would destroy their freedoms. How does that have any bearing whatsoever on whether free societies can be established?
- deogeo 8y ago> need to oppose those who would destroy their freedoms Of course no-one can argue against it if you re-state it like that. But the paradox goes much further: "Popper asserted that to allow freedom of speech to those who would use it to eliminate the very principle upon which they rely is paradoxical."
- hannasanarion 8y agoAnd this means that free society cannot be established because....?
- deogeo 8y agoTolerant, not free. The terms are not interchangeable. The paradox implies it because if the ideas of tolerance are so fragile, that even in a majority tolerant society, intolerant ideas present such a threat as to consider sacrificing even free speech, then how could they have ever come to dominate in the first place?