Political Thought of Karl Popper.pdf

THE POLITICAL THOUGHT
OF KARL POPPER
THE POLITICAL
THOUGHT
OF KARL POPPER




Jeremy Shearmur


London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1996 Jeremy Shearmur
Jeremy Shearmur has asserted his moral right to be identified as the
author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Shearmur, Jeremy, 1948–
The political thought of Karl Popper/Jeremy Shearmur.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-09726-6 (alk. paper)
1. Popper, Karl Raimund, Sir, 1902—Contributions in political science.
I. Title.
1996
320’.092—dc20 96–7016 CIP
ISBN 0-203-21282-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-21294-0 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-09726-6 (Print Edition)
To Colin, Mary and Pam
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Bibliographical information xi
INTRODUCTION 1
1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF POPPER’S POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY 18
Introduction 18
New Zealand 22
The placing of The Open Society 26
After The Open Society 30
2 THE OPEN SOCIETY AND THE POVERTY OF
HISTORICISM 37
Popper contextualized 37
Between Scylla and Charybdis 40
The political philosophy of The Open Society 47
3AFTER THE OPEN SOCIETY 65
Introduction 65
Epistemological optimism 66
‘Towards a Rational Theory of Tradition’ 70
Politi