This study is an interpretation of the social and political thought and methodology of Karl Popper, one of the most heralded yet controversial philosophers of our time. The goal has been to provide a more coherent, accurate, and systematic account of Popper's thought and of its relevance to students of politics and society than currently exists by, first, emphasizing certain historical and contextual factors in connection with the structure and development of his ideas which rule out certain contemporary misunderstandings of his thought, and secondly, by allowing Popper's own formulations
to take precedence over those of his commentators, regardless of their sympathies and estimate of Popper's massive intellectual legacy.
It is my principal argument that the unity of Popper's philosophy lies in its moral dimension, his life long determination
to conserve the intellectual foundations of hope and progress that human autonomy requires--the distinctively Kantian belief that mind can and should be decisive in practical affairs no less than in the struggle with nature, the twin pillars of the Enlightenment and modern liberalism alike. Given the nature of our times--a century of "total" wars, endless crises, and one intellectual revolution after another--such an endeavour is no small achievement.
I have tried to capture the propositional cutting-edge of my interpretation of Popper's thought in the keywords of the subtitle of this study: that, without the belief in the possibility of objective truth--knowledge that is independent of whether we wish to acknowledge its existence or not, there is little hope in the future prospects of the "open societies" of the Western world, and that one of the gravest errors of the liberalism of the past was its underestimation
of the need to institutionalise its best interests against the threat of many forms of illiberal power known in our time, particularly of the "unintended" variety. I accordingly argue that Popper's vision is best characterised as a combat-toughened conception of reality, and of the corresponding rationality necessary to survive, let alone to live well, as the Western tradition of political theory has held to be desirable. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/25996 |
| Date | January 1985 |
| Creators | Williams, Douglas E. |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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