After The Open Society: Selected Social and Political Writings

The Open Society and its Enemies #3

by Karl Popper, Piers Norris Turner (Editor), Jeremy Shearmur (Editor)

In this long-awaited volume, Jeremy Shearmur and Piers Norris Turner bring to light Popper's most important unpublished and uncollected writings from the time of The Open Society until his death in 1994.
After The Open Society: Selected Social and Political Writings reveals the development of Popper's political and philosophical thought during and after the Second World War, from his early socialism through to the radical humanitarianism of The Open Society. The papers in this collection, many of which are available here for the first time, demonstrate the clarity and pertinence of Popper's thinking on such topics as religion, history, Plato and Aristotle, while revealing a lifetime of unwavering political commitment.
After The Open Society illuminates the thought of one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers and is essential reading for anyone interested in the recent course of philosophy, politics, history and society.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, History, Essays

528 pages, eBook Kindle

First published May 14, 2007

About the author

Sir Karl Raimund Popper, FRS, rose from a modest background as an assistant cabinet maker and school teacher to become one of the most influential theorists and leading philosophers. Popper commanded international audiences and conversation with him was an intellectual adventure—even if a little rough—animated by a myriad of philosophical problems. He contributed to a field of thought encompassing (among others) political theory, quantum mechanics, logic, scientific method and evolutionary theory.

Popper challenged some of the ruling orthodoxies of philosophy: logical positivism, Marxism, determinism and linguistic philosophy. He argued that there are no subject matters but only problems and our desire to solve them. He said that scientific theories cannot be verified but only tentatively refuted, and that the best philosophy is about profound problems, not word meanings. Isaiah Berlin rightly said that Popper produced one of the most devastating refutations of Marxism. Through his ideas Popper promoted a critical ethos, a world in which the give and take of debate is highly esteemed in the precept that we are all infinitely ignorant, that we differ only in the little bits of knowledge that we do have, and that with some co-operative effort we may get nearer to the truth.

Nearly every first-year philosophy student knows that Popper regarded his solutions to the problems of induction and the demarcation of science from pseudo-science as his greatest contributions. He is less known for the problems of verisimilitude, of probability (a life-long love of his), and of the relationship between the mind and body.

Popper was a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the British Academy, and Membre de I'Institute de France. He was an Honorary member of the Harvard Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, and an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics, King's College London, and of Darwin College Cambridge. He was awarded prizes and honours throughout the world, including the Austrian Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold, the Lippincott Award of the American Political Science Association, and the Sonning Prize for merit in work which had furthered European civilization.

Karl Popper was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965 and invested by her with the Insignia of a Companion of Honour in 1982.

(edited from http://www.tkpw.net/intro_popper/intr...)

Reviews

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Editorial Introduction
Acknowledgements
Popper's Books

Introduction
--Optimist, pessimist and pragmatist views of scientific knowledge (1963)

Memories of Austria
--Julius Kraft, 1898-1960 (1962)
--Memories of Otto Neurath (1973)
--Preface to Fritz Kolb, Es kam ganz anders (It all turned out very differently) (1981)
--Anti-semitism in Austria: a letter to Friedrich Hayek (1969)

Lectures from New Zealand
--Science and religion (1940); appendix: Karl Popper on God: interview with Edward Zerin (1969/1998)
--Ideal and reality in society (1940)
--Moral man and immoral society (1940)
--Is there a meaning in history? (1940)

On The Open Society
--Correspondence with Carnap on social philosophy (1940-50)
--Letter to Fritz Hellin on The Open Society (1943)
--Letter to Alfred Braunthal on The Open Society (1943)
--Uniting the camp of humanitarianism (1943-7)
--Public and private values (1946?); appendix: 'Utopianism and the open society'
--The theory of totalitarianism: a talk on The Open Society (1946?); appendix 1: The open and the closed society; appendix 2: The treatment of Germany
--Social institutions and personal responsibility (1947)
--The Open Society after five years: prefaces to the American edition of The Open Society (1948-50)
--Platonic holiday (1948)
--Response to de Vries (1952)
--On The Free Man's Library (1956)
--Letters to Isaiah Berlin (1959 and 1989)
--Historical explanation: an interview (1962/1966)
--Correspondence with Ernst Badian on Aristotle's political views (1965)
--Plato (1968)

The Cold War and After
--The open society and the democratic state (1963)
--Popper to Hayek on the abstract society and 'inner freedom' (1964)
--The status of science: a broadcast to Russia (1963)
--A note on the Cold War (1966)
--How to get out of Vietnam (1969)
--On For Conservatives Only (1970)
--Was ist liberal? (What is it to be liberal?) (1972)
--On reason and the open society: a conversation (1972)
--For a better world (1973)
--Historical prophecy as an obstacle to peace (1973)
--To Bryan Magee on nationalization (1974)
--Preface to the second Italian edition of The Poverty of Historicism (1975)
--On The New Liberty (after 1975)
--On toleration (1981)
--The importance of critical discussion: an argument for human rights and democracy (1981/2)
--The critical attitude in medicine: the need for a new ethics (1983)
--Response upon receiving the Award of the Fondation Tocqueville (1984)
--On democracy (1988)
--Outline of my views of what matters (1988)
--Historicism and the Soviet Union (1991)
--The Open Society today: its great yet limited success (1991)
--A letter to my Russian readers (1992)
--The communist road to self-enslavement (1992); appendix: Tribute to the life and work of Friedrich Hayek
--Europe now exists (1993)
--The power of television (1994)

Notes
Index

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

His open society or The War book is a masterpiece, but this was a letdown. He comes off as very Panglossian or Neoliberal. True, he was a friend of Hayek and respected Mises and, so it's not a surprise. He argues that despite the inequality and misery, western capitalism is still the best and so he was very pro status quo . He talks about how rich invest in university and culture—so pro trickle down economics. But i feel that if he lived in our time, then with his critical rationalism, he would have criticized our society. But this is my hope. Hence, unlike Russell, his writing did not transcend time.

Pragmatism is reformed skepticism, turning knowledge to instruments.

Popper argues that we should opt for piecemeal improvement and focus on the most significant and immediate misery . This is very much in line with Sen and Rodrik.

He has a 2×2 matrix between individiualism versus collectivism and egoism versus altruism. He suggests that west is individual altruist where as many collectivist society are egoist or tribal. Very much in agreement with this.

Summary of Open Society : historicism (there are laws of history), collectivism (individuals don't matter), and anti-rationalism (inspiration is better than reasoned argument)

The problem with people who believe in manifest truth is that they think those who oppose them are not only mistaken but maliciously refusing the truth (applies to zealots of all forms)

Also states in Middle East muslim and zionists are both to blame.

[T. Tokunaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

【Karl Popper / After the Open Society / Routledge, 2008】

--All these theories (note: that nations are made to protect people) must be translated, as it were, into the language of demands for political actions before they can be seriously discussed. (P69, Chapter 7 'Moral Man and Immoral Society')

Popper here, seems to be a realist sage. However, in some cases, his friends outsmart him, and he shows some stupidity - Rudolf Carnap was aware of Hayek, whom Popper trusted, against social democracy (P102, Chapter 9 'Correspondence with Carnap')

Meanwhile, his aphorisms would still entertain millions worldwide, like:

--...democracy is the only known form of government which makes it possible to get rid of a bad government without bloodshed (P243, Chapter 24)

-- It (note: fascist motive) is, rather, the doctrine that the struggle between communism and the Western world is part of that 'class struggle" which Made described as the essence of History, and the belief that 'capitalism' is prepared to go to any length to win this struggle (or to delay its predetermined outcome). (P263, Chapter 27: A Note on the Cold War)

--...and, second (note: second core of open society), that institutions should exist for the protection of freedom and the protection of the poor and the weak. (P277, Chapter 31: 'On Reason and the Open Society')

--We need a tolerant society in order to find among this plurality of competing ideas, of competing theories, the true ones - or those that get nearest to the truth. (P334, 'The Importance of Critical Discussion'

--I do believe in freedom and reason, but I do not think that one can construct a simple, practical and fruitful theory in these terms. (P360, Chapter 41 'On Democracy')

--These terrible horrors (atomic bombs) are misused by the propaganda for its own purposes, against science and reason, in favour of rationalism. (P373, 'Outline of My Views of What Matters') - this is the first time, as a Japanese reader, I found out that popularized "atomic bomb" discourses can distort and harm the very hibakushas (victims of the bombs).

--...the task of being a strong cultural force for the good is a very difficult task. (P416, Chapter 48, 'The Power of Television')

Quoting too much without actually criticizing much is my symptom of mild Popper addiction - but he was such a master of oblique strategy, which scatters aphorism like cards to pick up and prompt one's thinking and challenge one's brain, so forgive me making big memoranda.