Karl Popper and the Iranian Intellectuals

Abstract

The ways in which Popper’s ideas have been introduced to Iranian society will be discussed, and the reactions of several prominent Iranian intellectual groups, namely, the leftists, the Heideggerians, the religious conservatives, the religious intel- lectuals and the moderate seculars, to Popper’s views will be critically appraised.The upshot of the paper is that while Popper’s views have been used and misused in the power struggle between various groups in post-revolutionary Iran, they also have been instrumental in creating collective intentionalities and shared understandings con- cerning a range of important concepts in such diverse fields as epistemology, politics, culture, social action, and religious beliefs.