Josef Popper-Lynkeus - Ideas

Ideas

Popper-Lynkeus's ideas were innovative for his time. In engineering, he thought of the possibility of electric power transmission, 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:

• Influence of marching music 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, 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.