Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, FRS, FBA, (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), was an Austrian-born British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. He is counted among the most influential philosophers of science of the 20th century, and also wrote extensively on social and political philosophy. Popper is perhaps best known for repudiating the classical observationalist-inductivist account of scientific method by advancing empirical falsifiability as the criterion for distinguishing scientific theory from non-science; and for his vigorous defense of liberal democracy and the principles of social criticism which he took to make the flourishing of the “open society” possible.
In The Open Society and Its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism, Karl Popper developed a critique of historicism and a defence of the ‘Open Society’ and liberal democracy. Historicism is the theory that history develops inexorably and necessarily according to knowable general laws towards a determinate end. Popper argued that this view is the principal theoretical presupposition underpinning most forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. He argued that historicism is founded upon mistaken assumptions regarding the nature of scientific law and prediction. Since the growth of human knowledge is a causal factor in the evolution of human history, and since “no society can predict, scientifically, its own future states of knowledge”, it follows, he argued, that there can be no predictive science of human history. For Popper, metaphysical and historical indeterminism go hand in hand.
In the same book, he defines an “open society” as one which ensures that political leaders can be overthrown without the need for bloodshed, as opposed to a “closed society”, in which a bloody revolution or coup d’état is needed to change the leaders. He further describes an open society as one “in which individuals are confronted with personal decisions” as opposed to a “magical or tribal or collectivist society”. In this context, tribalistic and collectivist societies do not distinguish between natural laws and social customs. Individuals are unlikely to challenge traditions they believe to have a sacred or magical basis. The beginnings of an open society are thus marked by a distinction between natural and man-made law, and an increase in personal responsibility and accountability for moral choices. (Note that Popper did not see this as incompatible with religious belief). Popper argues that the ideas of individuality, criticism, and humanitarianism cannot be suppressed once people become aware of them, and therefore that it is impossible to return to the closed society. Attempts to do so would necessarily involve brutal and anti-humanitarian measures.
Popper’s concept of the open society is epistemological rather than political. Based on his theory that knowledge is provisional and fallible, it implies that society must be open to alternative points of view. Claims to certain knowledge and ultimate truth leads to the imposition of one version of reality. Such a society is closed to freedom of thought. In contrast, in an open society every citizen needs to form his or her own view of reality and that requires freedom of thought and expression and the cultural and legal institutions that can facilitate this. An open society also has to be pluralistic and multicultural, in order to benefit from the maximum number of viewpoints possible to the given problems.
Humanitarianism, equality and political freedom are fundamental characteristics of an open society. Another important characteristic of an open society is competition for social status. Indeed, social mobility is sometimes used as a measure of the ‘openness’ of society. The importance of social mobility for an open society was recognised by Pericles’, a statesman of the Athenian democracy, in his funeral oration: “…advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life.”
Democracies are examples of the “open society”, whereas totalitarian dictatorships and autocratic monarchies are examples of the “closed society”.
Popper’s influence, both through his work in philosophy of science and through his political philosophy, has also extended beyond the academy. Among Popper’s students and advocates at the London School of Economics is the multibillionaire investor George Soros, who says his investment strategies are modelled on Popper’s understanding of the advancement of knowledge through falsification. Among Soros’s philanthropic foundations is the Open Society Institute, a think-tank named in honour of Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies, which Soros founded to advance the Popperian defense of the open society against authoritarianism and totalitarianism. We also provide more detailed informationa about George Soros.
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