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Title: The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper ISBN: 0-415-29062-7 Publisher: Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Lt Pub. Date: 16 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover |
Average Customer Rating: 4.52 (33 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Greatest Book of the 20th Century?
Comment: I think the title of this review is a true description of this book, but I urge you to judge for yourself. My only regret is that I did not read it many years ago when my head was turned by the siren calls of what Popper calls 'tribalism'. Even then I heard about it and had it pooh-poohed as 'old hat' by 'advanced' thinkers (self-styled!). Often misinterpreted as an attack on Plato, Marx and Hegel, it is in reality a stirring defense of democracy and liberalism, written at democracy's darkest hour. Now that Marxism has collapsed, Popper in an interview given before his death called for us now to look for the 'roads not taken', admitting that embattled western liberalism became, to a certain extent, an unquestioned dogma like its opponents. A good place to start that search is with Popper's greatest book.
Rating: 5
Summary: "deconstructing heidegger"
Comment: Popper's attempt at saving the Western World, part II. After refuting Plato in part I -to many shocking and "a priori" intellectually suicidal already- Popper went one better yet in part II: taking on Heidegger and Hegel (amongst others), the German fuehrers of contemporary philosophical thinking (at the time). - Unprecedented impertinence, utter blasphemy. Well, he did it nevertheless and did it mercilessly, again. The philosophical establishment was not pleased. But the world at large, us, left with a much clearer picture about what kind of ideas we better NOT base our civic order, life and liberty on. Mankind owes Popper for his "open society" book(s). Some of the greatest stuff ever printed. Do your civic self, your community, a favor. Don't let the century expire without reading this, one of its, yes, "most important" books.
Rating: 5
Summary: As timely today as it was when written
Comment: Popper attempts - and largely succeeds - in puncturing the myth that authoritarian societies are in any way superior to Open Societies. This is an important message, particularly in this morally relativistic age where intellectual support (and justification) of authoritarian regimes is at an all-time high. The terrible truth is that totalitarian regimes do horrible things to their own people without qualms.
Popper demolishes the idea that a planned society is somehow preferable to a free one. A planned society is necessarily a static society, i.e. Eastern Europe and the USSR since 1945; the exact opposite is true of dynamic, continually evolving open societies. A casual look will convice all except the loonies still "waiting for the Revolution" that a liberal, market-driven culture produces goods and services that an authoritarian one cannot.
But his other arguement is deeper, more subtle. An open society is intrinsically more powerful for its intellectual machinery. It is not the material wealth of the West that should be admired (or disparaged if you are of that type). It is our intellectual dominance - particularly the US - that is so overwhelming. And it is true in all areas - scientific research, inventions, art, music, science...open societies excel, planned societies falter.
This is Popper's strongest arguement for an open society - the relationship between economic and political freedom. It is not possible to have one without the other over the long haul. Yet, Popper touches on what might be considered the greatest weakness of our own success - the idea that material wealth leads does not require political freedom or participation. In this era of slogans, sound bites and everyone from actresses to radio hosts to rap stars dispensing political advice, it is important to remember that an open society exists only so long as citizens choose freedom through informed choices. Intellectual laziness or (worse) depravity is the first step to cultural decline. An important, readable work.
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Title: The Poverty of Historicism (Routledge Classics) by Karl Raimund Popper ISBN: 0415278465 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 29 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Logic of Scientific Discovery by Karl Popper ISBN: 0415278449 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 29 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: All Life Is Problem Solving by Karl Popper ISBN: 0415249929 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge by Karl Raimund Popper, Karl Popper ISBN: 0415285941 Publisher: Routledge Classics Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Popper Selections by Karl Raimund, Sir Popper ISBN: 0691020310 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1985 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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