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JOSEPH POPPER-LYNKAEUS 67
through personal contact with those who teach, not-or at least
. not in the main-through textbooks. It is this that primarily
constitutes and preserves culture. This is what I have in mind
when I reco=end the "humanities" as important, not just dry
specialized knowledge in the fields of history and philosophy.
Overemphasis on the competitive system and premature specialization
on the ground of immediate usefulness kill the spirit
on which all cultural life depends, specialized knowledge included.
It is also vital to a valuable education that independent criti­
, cal thinking be developed in the young human being, a development
that is greatly jeopardized by overburdening him with
too much and with too varied subjects (point system). Over­
. burdening necessarily leads to superficiality. Teaching should
be such that what is offered is perceived as a Valuable gift and
not as a hard duty.
About Friends
JOSEPH POPPER-LYNKAEUS
1838-1921. Austrian. By profession, engineer. Famous as a
writer for his pungent criticism of State and Society and for
his courageous program to alleviate social evils. Some of his
books were banned in Imperial Austria. This statement appeared
in Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: Querido Verlag,
1934.
Popper-Lynkaeus was more than a brilliant engineer and
writer. He was one of the few outstanding personalities who
embody the conscience of a generation. He has drummed into
us that society is responsible for the fate of every individual and
shown us a way to translate the consequent obligation of the
community into fact. The community or state was no fetish