Farsi translations of Popper’s works were flying off the shelves. But they were being savaged in the press by devotees of Soroush’s rival, Ahmad Fardid, who espoused the views of Martin Heidegger. Many hard-liners in the Islamic Republic were attracted to Heidegger, the midcentury German thinker tainted by his ties to Nazism, as a counter to Western scientific rationalism’s claims to universalism. “Because both philosophers were associated with the ruling regime, their debates were fully aired before the public,” Secor says. “Iranian intellectuals, perhaps thrilling to the aura of purpose, often describe the battle as a war by proxy between Heidegger and Popper.”

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