Josef Popper-Lynkeus
Encyclopedia
Josef Popper-Lynkeus was an Austrian
scholar, writer, and inventor. Josef Popper was born in the Jewish quarter in Kolin
(now in the Czech Republic
).
Polytechnikum and the Vienna
Polytechnikum, having graduated from the latter in 1859. In the humanities, he audited various lectures at the University of Vienna
and studied the literature on subjects of interest to him.
in a private firm. From 1862 – 1866, he tutored and occasionally lectured, and from 1867 - 1897, he privately pursued various inventions. In 1868, he contrived a system of gaskets to prevent the buildup of scales on the inner walls of steam boilers
. This and some other inventions prepared the ground for his work in engineering, physics
, and social and moral philosophy – independently of establishment and closed academic groups.
, the conversion of mechanical energy of waterfalls and rising tides into electrical power
(1862). In physics, he thought of the mass-energy relation (1883) and the idea of a quantum
of energy (1884), the principle of unavoidable distortion of the parameters of objects under investigation by measuring instruments. In psychology, he thought of the interpretations of dreams based on analysis of the conflict between the social consciousness of an individual and his or her animal instincts (short story Dreaming like Waking, 1889). Several years before Theodore Herzl, in the work Prince Bismarck and anti-Semitism (1886), Popper-Lynkeus came to the conclusion that the Jews could be saved from anti-Semitism
only if they possessed their own state. He considered creation of such a state an urgent need, and that the type of regime in the beginning did not matter, that even a monarchy
would be satisfactory.
The aforementioned short story was included in the collection of philosophical stories under the common title Fantasies of a Realist, which was published in 1899 and ran through twenty editions. Since then, Popper-Lynkeus used the pseudonym
Lynkeus
– after the keen-sighted watchman from the Argonaut
's ship
, appearing also in Goethe
's Faust
. Three of the many ideas Popper-Lynkeus suggested in this collection were:
Popper-Lynkeus mentions the great power that music has over the masses. He stated that marching music often serves as a support of tyranny, transforming the masses into a paste anything can be made from. This idea of Popper-Lynkeus is similar to an idea of Leo Tolstoy
, who said, "Those who want to have more slaves should compose more marching mu-sic."
In the sphere of justice
, Popper-Lynkeus maintained that publicity should be the main punishment for committing a crime, and only recidivists
should be isolated. According to Popper-Lynkeus, the right to exist is the primary and natural right of any human being, and for this reason, the state should not be allowed to send an individual to death without his or her consent. He was an advocate of compulsory military service, but provided that only volunteers would be sent to battlefields.
, and explains it in a series of works beginning from The Right to Live and the Duty to Die (1878) and ending with The Universal Civil Service as a Solution of a Social Problem (1912).
According to Popper-Lynkeus, society has a duty to provide its members with goods of prime necessity – food, clothes, and housing - and also with the services of prime necessity – public health care, upbringing, and education. However, every healthy society member in the framework of labor service would participate in activities that do not require higher or secondary special education and that are related to the creation of material foundations of national economy (e.g. mining, forest exploitation, farm work, construction work). He or she would also be engaged in the manufacturing of goods and providing basic services.
In Popper-Lynkeus's opinion, a just human society would arise not as a result of a violent social upheaval, but as an outcome of the process of persuasion and common consensus. In this society, every individual in the course of his or her life would go through four social-age stages (the third stage out of them may be omitted): 1) educational (up to age 18); 2) natural-economic (men up to 30 years, women up to 25); 3) financial-economic; 4) pension. Every society member would define the boundary between the last two stages at his or her own discretion.
During the second of these stages, all healthy society members take part in labor service and on this ground become entitled to obtain basic necessities in the course of their entire life free of charge.
At the third stage, those society members who wish to work may be involved in the financial and economic activity in one of the state or private sectors (in the latter case either as hired employees or as free entrepreneur
s). They receive payment for their labor, and this enables them to purchase goods and get access to non-basic services.
During the last two of the aforementioned social-age stages, any individual is free. This cannot be said of the first two stages, when people earn their freedom and grow up to become fully aware of it. As Popper-Lynkeus remarked, with scientific and technological advancement, the duration of the second stage would gradually decrease. Simultaneously, the scope of the concept goods and services of primary necessity would expand.
Among the conditions for creating a social system, according to Popper-Lynkeus, is the necessity to foster in the rising generation on the first social-age stage such traits as love and respect to other people, love to work and aversion to false needs, and habits of rational use of leisure time.
and Ernst Mach
; philosophers Martin Buber
and Hugo Bergman; chemist Wilhelm Ostwald
; mathematician Richard von Mises; statistician Karl Ballod (Kārlis Balodis); physiologist Theodor Baer; psychologist Sigmund Freud
; writers Max Brod
, Stefan Zweig
, and Arthur Schnitzler
; and the founder of the Zionist Revisionist movement, Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
Jabotinsky pointed out at the five constituents of the Popper-Lynkeus minimal program, Food, clothes, housing, health services, and education. Calling lack of any of these factors a "hole," he said, "Human society is similar to the kindergarten
. In the kindergarten there are five holes, according to these five constituents. The children playing in the kindergarten are in danger of falling into one of them. What does the Prussian guard do? He erects shields with such inscriptions as 'Do not go to the right!' or 'Do not go to the left!' Following Popper-Lynkeus, I propose to cover up all these holes and give the children opportunity to play freely as they want."
On 21 February 1918, on the 80th anniversary of Josef Popper-Lynkeus birth, his followers, physician and psychologist Fritz Wittels and writer Walter Markus, established the organization Universal Food Service in Vienna. For several years, this organization published a bulletin under the same name. It functioned for 20 years and was disbanded at the time of the annexation of Austria into Germany
.
Josef Popper-Lynkeus died on 22 December 1921. In recognition of his merits and accomplishments, the street in Vienna
where he lived during the last years of his life was named after him.
On the evening of the 150th anniversary of Josef Popper's birth, a fund for researching his thought and propagation of his ideas was established at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
In July 2007, the Tel-Aviv–Jaffa municipality decided to name one of the streets in Jaffa
after Popper-Lynkeus.
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
scholar, writer, and inventor. Josef Popper was born in the Jewish quarter in Kolin
Kolín
Kolín is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic some east from Prague, lying on the Elbe river.-History:Kolín was founded by king Přemysl Otakar II in the 13th century, first mentioned in 1261. Later on, 1437, a castle was founded here...
(now in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
).
Education
Popper-Lynkeus received his higher education at the PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
Polytechnikum and the Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
Polytechnikum, having graduated from the latter in 1859. In the humanities, he audited various lectures at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
and studied the literature on subjects of interest to him.
Inventions
After graduating from the Vienna Polytechnikum, Popper-Lynkeus worked for two years as an engineerEngineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
in a private firm. From 1862 – 1866, he tutored and occasionally lectured, and from 1867 - 1897, he privately pursued various inventions. In 1868, he contrived a system of gaskets to prevent the buildup of scales on the inner walls of steam boilers
Boiler (steam generator)
A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applying heat energy to water. Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam generators were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure but, at pressures above this, it is more...
. This and some other inventions prepared the ground for his work in engineering, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, and social and moral philosophy – independently of establishment and closed academic groups.
Ideas
Popper-Lynkeus's ideas were innovative for his time. In engineering, he thought of the possibility of electric power transmissionElectric power transmission
Electric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to Electrical substations located near demand centers...
, the conversion of mechanical energy of waterfalls and rising tides into electrical power
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
(1862). In physics, he thought of the mass-energy relation (1883) and the idea of a quantum
Quantum
In physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude can take on only certain discrete...
of energy (1884), the principle of unavoidable distortion of the parameters of objects under investigation by measuring instruments. In psychology, he thought of the interpretations of dreams based on analysis of the conflict between the social consciousness of an individual and his or her animal instincts (short story Dreaming like Waking, 1889). Several years before Theodore Herzl, in the work Prince Bismarck and anti-Semitism (1886), Popper-Lynkeus came to the conclusion that the Jews could be saved from anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
only if they possessed their own state. He considered creation of such a state an urgent need, and that the type of regime in the beginning did not matter, that even a monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
would be satisfactory.
The aforementioned short story was included in the collection of philosophical stories under the common title Fantasies of a Realist, which was published in 1899 and ran through twenty editions. Since then, Popper-Lynkeus used the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Lynkeus
Lynceus (Argonaut)
Lynceus was the jealous murderer of Castor, along with his brother, Idas. Idas and Lynceus murdered Castor because they all sought Phoebe and Hilaeira, daughters of Leucippus . Lynceus was one of the Argonauts and he participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar...
– after the keen-sighted watchman from the Argonaut
Argonaut
Argonaut may refer to:* Argonaut , a kind of octopus in the genus Argonauta* Jason and the Argonauts, sailors in Greek mythology* Argonauts of Saint Nicholas, a military order in Naples...
's ship
Argo
In Greek mythology, the Argo was the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to retrieve the Golden Fleece. It was named after its builder, Argus.-Legend:...
, appearing also in Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
's Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
. Three of the many ideas Popper-Lynkeus suggested in this collection were:
- Influence of marching musicMarch (music)A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
on the masses; - On the expediency of some punishments;
- On the right of every individual to exist.
Popper-Lynkeus mentions the great power that music has over the masses. He stated that marching music often serves as a support of tyranny, transforming the masses into a paste anything can be made from. This idea of Popper-Lynkeus is similar to an idea of Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
, who said, "Those who want to have more slaves should compose more marching mu-sic."
In the sphere of justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
, Popper-Lynkeus maintained that publicity should be the main punishment for committing a crime, and only recidivists
Recidivism
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior...
should be isolated. According to Popper-Lynkeus, the right to exist is the primary and natural right of any human being, and for this reason, the state should not be allowed to send an individual to death without his or her consent. He was an advocate of compulsory military service, but provided that only volunteers would be sent to battlefields.
Social system
Popper-Lynkeus designed his own social system, which ensures that all individuals are provided with goods of primary necessityBasic needs
The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of absolute poverty. It attempts to define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well-being, usually in terms of consumption goods. The poverty line is then defined as the amount of income...
, and explains it in a series of works beginning from The Right to Live and the Duty to Die (1878) and ending with The Universal Civil Service as a Solution of a Social Problem (1912).
According to Popper-Lynkeus, society has a duty to provide its members with goods of prime necessity – food, clothes, and housing - and also with the services of prime necessity – public health care, upbringing, and education. However, every healthy society member in the framework of labor service would participate in activities that do not require higher or secondary special education and that are related to the creation of material foundations of national economy (e.g. mining, forest exploitation, farm work, construction work). He or she would also be engaged in the manufacturing of goods and providing basic services.
In Popper-Lynkeus's opinion, a just human society would arise not as a result of a violent social upheaval, but as an outcome of the process of persuasion and common consensus. In this society, every individual in the course of his or her life would go through four social-age stages (the third stage out of them may be omitted): 1) educational (up to age 18); 2) natural-economic (men up to 30 years, women up to 25); 3) financial-economic; 4) pension. Every society member would define the boundary between the last two stages at his or her own discretion.
During the second of these stages, all healthy society members take part in labor service and on this ground become entitled to obtain basic necessities in the course of their entire life free of charge.
At the third stage, those society members who wish to work may be involved in the financial and economic activity in one of the state or private sectors (in the latter case either as hired employees or as free entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
s). They receive payment for their labor, and this enables them to purchase goods and get access to non-basic services.
During the last two of the aforementioned social-age stages, any individual is free. This cannot be said of the first two stages, when people earn their freedom and grow up to become fully aware of it. As Popper-Lynkeus remarked, with scientific and technological advancement, the duration of the second stage would gradually decrease. Simultaneously, the scope of the concept goods and services of primary necessity would expand.
Among the conditions for creating a social system, according to Popper-Lynkeus, is the necessity to foster in the rising generation on the first social-age stage such traits as love and respect to other people, love to work and aversion to false needs, and habits of rational use of leisure time.
Influence
Among the admirers of Popper-Lynkeus were physicists Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
and Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, noted for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves...
; philosophers Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
and Hugo Bergman; chemist Wilhelm Ostwald
Wilhelm Ostwald
Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald was a Baltic German chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities...
; mathematician Richard von Mises; statistician Karl Ballod (Kārlis Balodis); physiologist Theodor Baer; psychologist Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
; writers Max Brod
Max Brod
Max Brod was a German-speaking Czech Jewish, later Israeli, author, composer, and journalist. Although he was a prolific writer in his own right, he is most famous as the friend and biographer of Franz Kafka...
, Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.- Biography :...
, and Arthur Schnitzler
Arthur Schnitzler
Dr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
; and the founder of the Zionist Revisionist movement, Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
Jabotinsky pointed out at the five constituents of the Popper-Lynkeus minimal program, Food, clothes, housing, health services, and education. Calling lack of any of these factors a "hole," he said, "Human society is similar to the kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
. In the kindergarten there are five holes, according to these five constituents. The children playing in the kindergarten are in danger of falling into one of them. What does the Prussian guard do? He erects shields with such inscriptions as 'Do not go to the right!' or 'Do not go to the left!' Following Popper-Lynkeus, I propose to cover up all these holes and give the children opportunity to play freely as they want."
On 21 February 1918, on the 80th anniversary of Josef Popper-Lynkeus birth, his followers, physician and psychologist Fritz Wittels and writer Walter Markus, established the organization Universal Food Service in Vienna. For several years, this organization published a bulletin under the same name. It functioned for 20 years and was disbanded at the time of the annexation of Austria into Germany
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
.
Josef Popper-Lynkeus died on 22 December 1921. In recognition of his merits and accomplishments, the street in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
where he lived during the last years of his life was named after him.
On the evening of the 150th anniversary of Josef Popper's birth, a fund for researching his thought and propagation of his ideas was established at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
In July 2007, the Tel-Aviv–Jaffa municipality decided to name one of the streets in Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
after Popper-Lynkeus.
German
- Richard Schwartz «Ratenau, Goldshtein, Popper-Lynkeus and their Social Systems» (1919);
- Fritz Wittels «An End to Poverty» (1922; translated into English in 1925);
- Adolph Gelber «Josef Popper-Lynkeus. His Life and Activity» (1922);
- Emil Feldes «People of Tomorrow» (a novel describing a society based on the principles of Josef Popper-Lynkeus, 1924);
- Felix Frenkel «Universal Food Service and Pan Europe» (1924);
- Heinrich Levi «Epistemology of Popper-Lynkeus and its Relation to Mach's Philosophy» (1932);
- Robert Plank «Engineer of Society» (1938).
Hebrew
- Israel Doryon «The Kingdom of Lynkeus» (on the 100th anniversary of Popper-Lynkeus birth, published in Jerusalem in 1939);
- Israel Doryon «End of the Struggle for Existence» (1954, with a preface by Albert Einstein, dated February of the same year);
- Mendel Singer «Humanist Popper-Lynkeus» (on the 50th anniversary of his death, 1971);
- Israel Doryon «Popper-Lynkeus – a Solution of the Problem of Exis-tence» (on the 60th anniversary of his death, 1981);
- Ephraim Wolf «Josef Popper-Lynkeus – a Great Humanist and Many-Sided Thinker» (1996; Russian original was published in 1997 in Moscow under the title «Josef Popper-Lynkeus – Humanist and Thinker»).
English
- Albert Einstein «The World as I See it» (1932);
- Henry Wachtel «Security for All and Free Enterprise» (1954, with a preface by Albert Einstein, dated July of the same year).