Changes

==Politics==

==Politics==

A refugee from Austria after the rise of [[Nazism]], Popper dedicated the war years to the study of the roots of totalitarian thought.  The “Open Society and its Enemies” analysed the contribution, as he saw it, of [[Plato]], [[Hegel]] and [[Marx]] to an anti-rational tribalistic “closed society”.  The close society was, for Popper, marked by a lack of criticism of established ideas (established societal norms being treated not as societal norms but as “taboo” or “the natural order”) together with a collectivism that subjected the individual to the group goal.   

A refugee from Austria after the rise of [[Nazism]], Popper dedicated the war years to the study of the roots of totalitarian thought.  The “Open Society and its Enemies” analysed the contribution, as he saw it, of [[Plato]], [[Hegel]] and [[Marx]] to an anti-rational tribalistic “closed society”.  The close society was, for Popper, marked by a lack of criticism of established ideas (established societal norms being treated not as societal norms but as “taboo” or “the natural order”) together with a collectivism that subjected the individual to the group goal.  Popper also saw “historicist” views and underpinning much of the thought behind the “closed” society.  “Historicism”, dealt with in “The Poverty of Historicism” and criticised throughout the “Open Society”, both sees historical laws of development and bases much of its morality on these supposed laws.   

Popper also saw “historicist” views and underpinning much of the thought behind the “closed” society.  “Historicism”, dealt with in “The Poverty of Historicism” and criticised throughout the “Open Society”, both sees historical laws of development and bases much of its morality on these supposed laws.

In contrast the concept of the "Open Society" reflects Popper's concept of science.  Just as there is no method for generating a true description of a Universal Law there is no method for generating perfect (Utopian) social laws, norms or governmental actions.  Society will always be in a state of less than perfection and may only improve by changing what was previously thought to be the best course of action.  As society can only improve by self-criticism it follows that criticism must not be restricted.   

 

Popper's views on politics cannot be placed along the traditional left/right axis.  Bryan Magee, a liberal politician (MP for the British Labour Party and the British Social Democratic Party) who knew Popper personally, reflected that Popper began adult life an "emotionally committed social democrat" and moved, with middle age, progressively to the right.  Magee reflected that the key insights given by Popper, the method of robustly critising our own views, "can be adopted by anyone committed to democratic politics, from the extreme democratic left to the extreme democratic right"<ref>B. Magee "What Use is Popper to a Politician" in A. O'Hear (ed.) ''Karl Popper: Philosophy and Problems'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995. page 266.</ref>

==Critical Rationalism==

==Critical Rationalism==