Popper’s Paradox In his 1945 book The Open Society and its Enemies, philosopher Karl Popper describes a “Paradox of Tolerance” like this: If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. This is only part of Popper’s Paradox, but it’s the part that’s most widely referenced—often quoted more colloquially as, “In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.”
