The Open Society and Its Enemies is an influential two-volume work by Karl Popper written during World War II. Failing to find a publisher in the United States, it was first printed in London by Routledge in 1945. The work excoriates theories of teleological historicism in which history unfolds inexorably according to universal laws, and indicts as totalitarian Plato, Hegel, and Marx for relying on historicism to underpin their political philosop...
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The Open Society and Its Enemies is an influential two-volume work by Karl Popper written during World War II. Failing to find a publisher in the United States, it was first printed in London by Routledge in 1945. The work excoriates theories of teleological historicism in which history unfolds inexorably according to universal laws, and indicts as totalitarian Plato, Hegel, and Marx for relying on historicism to underpin their political philosophies.
A veritable who's who of philosophy and the social sciences were involved in its path to publication, as Popper was writing in academic obscurity two oceans away in New Zealand for the duration of the World War II. Among them were Ernst Gombrich (entrusted with the main task of finding a publisher), Friedrich Hayek (who wanted to get Popper to the London School of Economics and thus was enthused by Popper's turn to social philosophy), Lionel Robbins, Harold Laski (both of whom reviewed the manuscript), and J.N. Findlay, among others. It...
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