The Open Society and Its Enemies

Introduction

Popper wrote the book in Christchurch, New Zealand, between 1938 and 1943, calling it his contribution to the war effort; with help from Friedrich Hayek and Ernst Gombrich it appeared in London in 1945 in two volumes, “The Spell of Plato” and “The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath”. Against utopian blueprints Popper advocates “piecemeal social engineering”, reforms that can be tested and corrected. A note to the first volume formulates the paradox of tolerance: unlimited tolerance can lead to the disappearance of tolerance. Classical scholars criticised his portrait of Plato as one-sided; the book became a classic of post-war liberalism.

Connections

Criticizes

• Republicc. 375 BCE · Plato
• Elements of the Philosophy of Right1820 · Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• Capital1867 · Karl Marx

More works by Karl Popper

• 1934The Logic of Scientific Discovery