Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION BY ALAN RYAN ix 'PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PUBLICATION OF THE OPEN SOCIETY ' BY E.H. GOMBRICH xxiii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xxxv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xxxvii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xxxix AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION xli VOLUME I: THE SPELL OF PLATO 1 The Myth of Origin and Destiny 5 1 Historicism and the Myth of Destiny 7 2 Heraclitus 10 3 Plato's Theory of Forms or Ideas 17 Plato's Descriptive Sociology 33 4 Change and Rest 35 5 Nature and Convention 55 Plato's Political Programme 81 6 Totalitarian Justice 83 7 The Principle of Leadership 114 8 The Philosopher King 130 9 Aestheticism, Perfectionism, Utopianism 147 The Background of Plato's Attack 159 10 The Open Society and Its Enemies 161 Addenda (1957, 1961, 1965) 190 VOLUME II: THE HIGH TIDE OF PROPHECY 213 The Rise of Oracular Philosophy 217 11 The Aristotelian Roots of Hegelianism 219 12 Hegel and the New Tribalism 242 Marx's Method 291 13 Marx's Sociological Determinism 293 14 The Autonomy of Sociology 301 15 Economic Historicism 311 16 The Classes 321 17 The Legal and the Social System 327 Marx's Prophecy 343 18 The Coming of Socialism 345 19 The Social Revolution 355 20 Capitalism and Its Fate 373 21 An Evaluation of the Prophecy 397 Marx's Ethics 403 22 The Moral Theory of Historicism 405 The Aftermath 417 23 The Sociology of Knowledge 419 24 Oracular Philosophy and the Revolt against Reason 430 Conclusion 463 25 Has History Any Meaning? 465 Addenda (1961, 1965) 485 NOTES 512 NOTES TO VOLUME I 514 NOTES TO VOLUME II 640 INDEX 735

About the Author

Karl Popper (1902-1994) was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. His books include "The Logic of Scientific Discovery", "The Poverty of Historicism, Conjectures and Refutations", and an autobiography, "Unended Quest". He was a professor at the London School of Economics.

Reviews

One of the Modern Library's 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century "Learned, subtly argued, and passionately written."--Sidney Hook, New York Times "No thinking person would be doing himself a service by neglecting Popper's book."--Joseph Craft, The Nation "One of the great books of the century."--Times (London) "Brilliant... It remains the best intellectual defence of liberal democracy."--Economist "Magnificent."--Hugh Trevor-Roper, Polemic "Few philosophers ... have combined such a vast width of knowledge with the capacity to produce important original ideas as [Popper] did."--Guardian "A major work. Combining the clarity of thought of the trained scientist with lucidity of presentation, Mr. Popper has written an unusually thoughtful and provocative book."--Hans Kohn, Yale Review