Karl Popper · Philosophy

The Open Society and Its Enemies

Popper’s political philosophy: reject the ancient question ‘who should rule?’ and its dream of wise philosopher-kings, and ask instead how to build institutions that let us remove bad rulers without bloodshed - and how to improve society by piecemeal reform rather than by imposing a utopian blueprint.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Popper distinguished the ‘closed’ tribal society from the ‘open’ society of free individuals, replaced ‘who should rule?’ with ‘how can we get rid of bad rulers without violence?’, and preferred piecemeal social engineering to utopian engineering. Explai…

Leads to Plato.

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