POPPER

Popper



Popper

Introduction

Karl Raimund Popper first suggested the distinction between open and closed societies in his social philosophical work The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945/1993). He aimed to formulate a plea for rationality and freedom-one against all kinds of totalitarianism. Popper wrote as follows: Neither the war nor any other contemporary event was explicitly mentioned in this book; but it was an attempt to understand those events and their background, nor some of the issues which were likely to arise after the war were won. His considerations are, to a large degree, shaped by the examination of National Socialism, as well as Stalinist totalitarianism.

Above all, Popper (1945/1993) radically opposed historicism and broke with the tradition of speculative historical philosophy. Historicism means looking at historical events from a meta-perspective: The truly important actors on the stage of history are not individuals, but rather the larger nations and their important leaders, or the big classes and big ideas. Understanding the laws of historical developments in order to predict future developments and advise policy decisions is the goal. The simplest and oldest form is theistic historicism: the teaching of the chosen people. Other forms include naturalistic, spiritual, and economic historicism. In each case, there are specific historical laws that need to be identified and upon which predictions about the future of mankind can be based.

According to Popper's convictions, progress and improvement of the living standard are not achieved by collectives, which are empowered by a higher principle, but exclusively by self-reliant and erring subjects. Popper's “critical rationalism” assumes that one may only justify those opinions and values that (at least tentatively) withstand critical examination. Rationality is fallible. Theories, or empirical-scientific systems, still need to be able to be disproven and thus should not be immune to critique; this is not possible in a “closed society,” in which dogmas and traditions determine social interaction. In such systems, changes do not occur due to acceptance of critiques, but rather due to new taboos.

Popper considered Plato, Hegel, and Marx to exemplify prophets of such social orders. As an opponent, he pleaded for the model of an “open society,” in which the individual finds his place in society through independent decisions. The shape of the open society results from critical discussions about the correct norms and values. “Critical rationalism” is the only reasonable way to make a gradual improvement of society possible. The plea for the “open society” thus not only results from moral decisions, but also from the way Popper sees himself, based on theoretical scientific principles. His demand that theories can be criticized and corrected implies the right to freedom of expression and the reversibility of political decisions. Thus, “critical rationalism” can be looked upon as the epistemology of a democratic-liberal, dynamic-pluralistic social order.

By linking skepticism with the legacy of Age of Enlightenment, Popper (1945/1993) built a bridge between Anglo-Saxon empiricism and the continental philosophy of conscience. The maxim “liberty, equality, fraternity” guides him. Only liberty enables human beings to bear responsibility; hence, liberty must ...