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The open society and its enemies3/6/2023 ![]() ![]() Also, as an aristocrat and a relative of one-time Athenian dictator Critias, Plato, according to Popper, was sympathetic to the oligarchs of his own day and contemptuous of the common man. Plato's hatred of democracy led him, says Popper, "to defend lying, political miracles, tabooistic superstition, the suppression of truth, and ultimately, brutal violence." Popper feels that Plato's historicist ideas are driven by a fear of the change that liberal democracies bring about. Popper reads the emerging humanitarian ideals of Athenian democracy as the birth pangs of his coveted open society. Popper extols Plato's analysis of social change and discontent, naming him as a great sociologist, yet rejects his solutions. In particular, Popper accuses Plato of betraying Socrates in the Republic, wherein Plato portrays Socrates sympathizing with totalitarianism ( see: Socratic problem). In so doing, Popper argues, they have taken Plato's political philosophy as a benign idyll, without taking into account its dangerous tendencies toward totalitarian ideology.Ĭontrary to major Plato scholars of his day, Popper divorced Plato's ideas from those of Socrates, claiming that the former in his later years expressed none of the humanitarian and democratic tendencies of his teacher. The subtitle of his first volume, "The Spell of Plato", makes clear Popper's view-namely, that most Plato interpreters through the ages have been seduced by Plato's greatness and inimitable style. Popper develops a critique of historicism and a defense of the open society and liberal democracy. The work was listed as one of the Modern Library Board's 100 Best Nonfiction books of the 20th century. Gombrich was published by Princeton University Press in 2013. A one-volume edition with a new introduction by Alan Ryan and an essay by E. Written during World War II, The Open Society and Its Enemies was published in 1945 in London by Routledge in two volumes: "The Spell of Plato" and "The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath". Popper indicts Plato, Hegel, and Marx as totalitarian for relying on historicism to underpin their political philosophies. ![]() The Open Society and Its Enemies is a work on political philosophy by the philosopher Karl Popper, in which the author presents a "defence of the open society against its enemies", and offers a critique of theories of teleological historicism, according to which history unfolds inexorably according to universal laws. ![]()
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