On PopperPopper's Open Society After Fifty Years:
The Continuing Relevance of Karl Popper
“The Prague conference on the fiftieth anniversary of The Open Society and Its Enemies was both intellectually challenging and emotionally stirring. It is appropriate that it should be commemorated.” George Soros
Popper's Open Society After Fifty Years presents a coherent survey of the reception and influence of Karl Popper’s masterpiece The Open Society and Its Enemies, over the fifty years since its publication in 1945 to contemporary transformations in East and Central Europe in a variety of domains: legislation; ethics; Church politics; nationalism; and others.
This unique volume contains papers by many of Popper’s contemporaries and friends, including such luminaries as Ernst Gombrich, John Watkins, Bryan Magee, Joseph Agassi and David Miller.
An Introduction to the Thought of Karl Popper
This study offers an accessible introduction to the life and work of this extraordinary thinker. It charts the development of Popper’s philosophy and shows his unfailing political commitment to humanism and enlightenment. At the centre of Popper’s thought stands rationality and a strong belief in the power of the human mind to change things for the better. Rationality thus serves as a guide both in his philosophical considerations and political views. Approved by Karl Popper himself as a sympathetic and comprehensive study, An Introduction to the Thought of Karl Popper will be ideal to meet the increasing demand for a summary introduction to his work.
THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF KARL POPPER
“Popper's politics have not been properly discussed since their first publication in the 1940s. Jeremy Shearmur, armed with a formidable scholarly knowledge of the text and of the man himself, probes deeply and sympathetically into their past and present relevance ... Shearmur offers a controversial and provocative reading of Popper and his relevance to contemporary political concerns that will interest all students of Popper and of neo-conservatism.”
Ian C Jarvie, Department of Philosophy, York University, TorontoThe Political Thought of Karl Popper offers a controversial treatment of Popper's ideas about politics, informed by Shearmur's personal knowledge of Popper together with research on unpublished material in the Popper archive at the Hoover Institution. While sympathetic to Popper's overall approach, Shearmur offers criticism of some of his ideas and suggests that political conclusions should be drawn from Popper's ideas which differ from Popper's own views. Shearmur introduces Popper's political ideas by way of a discussion of their development, which draws upon archive material. He then offers a critical survey of some of the themes from his Open Society and Poverty of Historicism, and discusses the political significance of some of his later philosophical ideas. Wider themes within Popper's philosophy are drawn on to offer striking critical re-interpretations of his ethical ideas and social theory. The book concludes with a discussion that suggests that Popper's views should have been closer to classical liberalism than they in fact were.
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