Open Society and Its Enemies (Volume 1)

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Summary: The historic effects of the prevailing mental operating syst
Review: Up to the introduction of computer software Plato's thinking catastrophe went at large unnoticed culminating in the past centuries' human catastrophes. This book reveals that thread through human history in a mind blowing way. But at the end it becomes obvious that the author in himself is mentally trapped too, for he lacks the concept that we live in a God created order and not in an evolutionary chaos. That is expressed in the proper meaning of the German word "Wirklichkeit" for which an English word is lacking with all its consequences...

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Summary: misleading and impertinent
Review: What else could I think of this book when I find Popper, today an almost forgotten philosopher, making fun of one of the greatest minds in history, like Aristotle? King Popper even remarks that he is ready to forgive Aristotle's shallowness, for he is the inventor of the respectable discipline of logic (this he does not dispute). He also suggests that Aristotle did not understand the problems he was dealing with in his Metaphysics. As for his analysis of Plato, he gets some conclusions right, but for the wrong reasons; and most of his theses are simply wrong, as so many critics have shown in the past decades.
The chapters on Hegel are funny, and as far as personal accusations go, they are quite fair. But the analysis of Hegel's philosophy is not rewarding, unless you just want to make fun of Hegel and refuse to make the least effort to understand his admittedly difficult philosophy.
The analysis of Marx is just what I expected: Marx as read by a clever but impatient and not quite informed critic.
The discussion of Mannheim et al.'s sociology of knowledge is question begging or at most irrelevant. Mannheim never denied that critical thinking exists, or that intersubjectivity is possible. But he set limits to it. Perhaps Popper thought there were no limits to critical thinking in the social sciences and that "prejudices" were always criticizable. But this he does not prove.
If you read the book carefully, you will also find out how much of a "naive" falsificationist Popper was, despite his own claims to the contrary.
Popper's witticisms are the most enjoyable thing of the book, except when he gets disrespectful to the point of being ridiculous.

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Summary: Skewers everyone in sight, sometimes unfairly
Review: Yes, this is an important book, yes, Popper knows his stuff, and yes,historicism does have its flaws. Yet the other reviews here seem tomiss Popper's essential Manicheanism: his belief that there is aclearly defined intellectual/social battle of "good againstevil," in which his book is a salvo for the forces of Good.

Any mature human being, however, knows that the world works inshades of gray, and seldom do we encounter pure Good or Evil. Itseems that Popper cannot stop thinking of most philosophers as eitherall-good, or, in many cases, all-bad. His derisive use of"German" for philosophy which he thinks is Evil is a smallinsight into his excesses. (By the way, to reviewers who claimedPopper is German: No, he's Austrian, and thus probably has an axe togrind with Germans/Prussians.)

Popper's treatment of Hegel leavesone with the impression that Hegel has nothing -- literally nothing --to contribute to philosophy. I just refuse to believe that. Somehave more to contribute than others, and Hegel can sometimes beunclear and self-contradictory, but to categorically dismisseverything Hegel ever wrote as complete rubbish is intellectualdishonesty of the kind Popper claims to abhor. Surely, there must beat least one small grain of wisdom in everyone's thinking, even if wedisagree with their conclusions. Too often, Popper either fails tofind this grain, or perhaps doesn't even attempt to look for it.

Onthe upside, I was impressed with Popper's uncharacteristicallyevenhanded treatment of Marx. Popper writes that Marx had goodintentions, of the "Open Society" sort, even if he wastrapped in historicism.

This is a pretty engrossing read, even ifPopper's self-righteous skewering of German (and ancient Greek)philosophers is excessive. Popper stands up for humanism, free will,open exchange of ideas, and moral responsibility: the pillars of whathe calls the "Open Society."

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