Science and the Open Society

This text is a defence of the philosophy of Karl Popper. In it the author, who was the man chosen by Popper to research and edit his archives, argues that Popper's ideas about science and open society are still largely misunderstood in the west, but are now very important in providing inspiration for the people in Central and Eastern Europe and Middle Asia, who are struggling to open up their closed societies. This volume draws together themes from Popper's epistemology and social philosophy - showing, for example, the connections between his distrust of communism and inductivism, his resistance to institutionalized science and logical positivism, and his opposition to intellectual authority and bureaucracy. Notturno discusses Popper's disagreements with Wittgenstein, Freud, Carnap, Gruenbaum and Kuhn, while developing the implications of his view for a wide range of contemporary issues, including politics, education, logic, critical thinking and the history of 20th century philosophy.