## The Open Society and Its Enemies ### The Open Society and Its Enemies ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/default-book-icon-4.11327a2af05a.png) #### Metadata * Author: [[Popper, Karl Sir;Václav Havel]] * Full Title: The Open Society and Its Enemies * Category: #books #### Highlights * One of the targets of Popper's profound criticism – which he supported by ample evidence – was a phenomenon he called holistic social engineering. He used this term to describe human attempts to change the world for the better completely and globally, on the basis of some preconceived ideology that purported to understand all the laws of historical development and to describe inclusively, comprehensively and holistically a state of affairs that would be the ultimate realization of these laws. (Location 108) * Popper argued for a gradual approach, an effort to improve incrementally the institutions, mechanisms and techniques of human coexistence, to improve them by remaining constantly in touch with life and constantly enriching our experience. Improvements and changes must be made according to whatever has proved to be good, practical, desirable and meaningful, without the arrogant presumption that we have understood everything about this world, and thus know everything there is to know about how to change it for (Location 122) * Note: small incremental changes rather than prophecizing stories on the great communal vision * Knowing all this and humbly accepting it is one thing; the arrogant belief that humanity, or the human spirit or reason, can grasp and describe the world in its entirety and derive from this description a vision of its improvement is something else altogether. It is one thing to be aware of the interconnection of all events; believing that we have fully understood this is something completely different. (Location 140) * intellectuals often yield to the temptation to attempt grasping the world as a whole, explaining it entirely and offering universal solutions to its problems. An impatience of mind and a variety of mental short-cuts are the usual reasons why intellectuals tend to devise holistic ideologies and succumb to the seductive power of holistic social engineering. (Location 163) * For that matter – were not the forerunners of Nazi ideology, the founders of Marxism, and the first Communist leaders intellectuals par excellence? Did not a number of dictators, and even some terrorists (Location 165) * Note: most of the dictators and murderers where also intellectuals * It was to describe this phenomenon that the expression trahison des clercs – 'the betrayal of the intellectuals' – was coined. (Location 169) * Note: trahison des clrs * Their increased sense of responsibility for this world has not made such intellectuals identify with an ideology; it has made them identify with humanity, its dignity and its prospects. (Location 176) * On the contrary: I am deeply convinced that the more such people engage directly in practical politics, the better our world will fare. By its very essence, politics induces those who work in it to focus their attention on short-term issues that have a direct bearing on the next elections instead of on what will happen a hundred years from now. (Location 190) * Note: intellectuals involved in politics * They assert that it is the task of science in general to make predictions, or rather, to improve upon our everyday predictions, and to put them upon a more secure basis; and that it is, in particular, the task of the social sciences to furnish us with long-term historical prophecies. (Location 529) * Their story that democracy is not to last for ever is as true, and as little to the point, as the assertion that human reason is not to last for ever, (Location 552) * In other words, they are disappointed historicists; they are men who, in spite of realizing the poverty of historicism, are unaware that they retain the fundamental historicistic prejudice—the doctrine that the social sciences, if they are to be of any use at all, must be prophetic. (Location 565) * Note: is there no other use of social sciences than to be prophetic * of the simplest and oldest of its forms, the doctrine of the chosen people. This doctrine is one of the attempts to make history understandable by a theistic interpretation, i.e. by recognizing God as the author of the play performed on the Historical Stage. The theory of the chosen people, more specifically, assumes that God has chosen one people to function as the selected instrument of His will, and that this people will inherit the earth. (Location 614) * Note: theology in historicism * There is no doubt that the doctrine of the chosen people grew out of the tribal form of social life. Tribalism, i.e. the emphasis on the supreme importance of the tribe without which the individual is nothing at all, is an element which we shall find in many forms of historicist theories. (Location 622) * Note: tribalism where the collective is more important than the individual is more important in historicism theories * Marx's historical philosophy substitutes for it the chosen class, the instrument for the creation of the classless society, and at the same time, the class destined to inherit the earth. (Location 637) * In the case of racialism, this is thought of as a kind of natural law; the biological superiority of the blood of the chosen race explains the course of history, past, present, and future; (Location 640) * This very natural approach, natural even to many of us to-day, was superseded by the genius of Heraclitus. The view he introduced was that there was no such edifice, no stable structure, no cosmos. 'The cosmos, at best, is like a rubbish heap scattered at random', is one of his sayings. (Location 667) * Note: rubbish heap scattered at random * In order to understand the effect of this revolution, we must remember the stability and rigidity of social life in a tribal aristocracy. Social life is determined by social and religious taboos; everybody has his assigned place within the whole of the social structure; everyone feels that his place is the proper, the 'natural' place, assigned to him by the forces which rule the world; everyone 'knows his place'. (Location 679) * 'Everything is in flux', he said; and 'You cannot step twice into the same river.' (Location 697) * if the future course of history is first determined, the social engineer believes that a scientific basis of politics would be a very different thing; it would consist of the factual information necessary for the construction or alteration of social institutions, in accordance with our wishes and aims. Such a science would have to tell us what steps we must take if we wish, for instance, to avoid depressions, or else to produce depressions; or if we wish to make the distribution of wealth more even, or less even. In other words, the social engineer conceives as the scientific basis of politics something like a social technology (Plato, as we shall see, compares it with the scientific background of medicine), as opposed to the historicist who understands it as a science of immutable historical tendencies. (Location 868) * Speaking more generally, we can say that the engineer or the technologist approaches institutions rationally as means that serve certain ends, and that as a technologist he judges them wholly according to their appropriateness, efficiency, simplicity, etc. The historicist, on the other hand, would rather attempt to find out the origin and destiny of these institutions in order to assess the 'true rôle' played by them in the development of history— evaluating them, for instance, as 'willed by God', or as 'willed by Fate', (Location 898) * As an elementary illustration, and a first step in our examination, we may refer to the problem of the so-called rules of exogamy, i.e. the problem of explaining the wide distribution, among the most diverse cultures, of marriage laws apparently designed to prevent inbreeding. (Location 6386) * apparent instinct is not rather a product of education, (Location 6391) # The Open Society and Its Enemies ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/default-book-icon-4.11327a2af05a.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[Popper, Karl Sir;Václav Havel]] - Full Title: The Open Society and Its Enemies - Category: #books ## Highlights - One of the targets of Popper’s profound criticism – which he supported by ample evidence – was a phenomenon he called holistic social engineering. He used this term to describe human attempts to change the world for the better completely and globally, on the basis of some preconceived ideology that purported to understand all the laws of historical development and to describe inclusively, comprehensively and holistically a state of affairs that would be the ultimate realization of these laws. (Location 108) - Popper argued for a gradual approach, an effort to improve incrementally the institutions, mechanisms and techniques of human coexistence, to improve them by remaining constantly in touch with life and constantly enriching our experience. Improvements and changes must be made according to whatever has proved to be good, practical, desirable and meaningful, without the arrogant presumption that we have understood everything about this world, and thus know everything there is to know about how to change it for (Location 122) - Note: small incremental changes rather than prophecizing stories on the great communal vision - Knowing all this and humbly accepting it is one thing; the arrogant belief that humanity, or the human spirit or reason, can grasp and describe the world in its entirety and derive from this description a vision of its improvement is something else altogether. It is one thing to be aware of the interconnection of all events; believing that we have fully understood this is something completely different. (Location 140) - intellectuals often yield to the temptation to attempt grasping the world as a whole, explaining it entirely and offering universal solutions to its problems. An impatience of mind and a variety of mental short-cuts are the usual reasons why intellectuals tend to devise holistic ideologies and succumb to the seductive power of holistic social engineering. (Location 163) - For that matter – were not the forerunners of Nazi ideology, the founders of Marxism, and the first Communist leaders intellectuals par excellence? Did not a number of dictators, and even some terrorists (Location 165) - Note: most of the dictators and murderers where also intellectuals - It was to describe this phenomenon that the expression trahison des clercs – ‘the betrayal of the intellectuals’ – was coined. (Location 169) - Note: trahison des clrs - Their increased sense of responsibility for this world has not made such intellectuals identify with an ideology; it has made them identify with humanity, its dignity and its prospects. (Location 176) - On the contrary: I am deeply convinced that the more such people engage directly in practical politics, the better our world will fare. By its very essence, politics induces those who work in it to focus their attention on short-term issues that have a direct bearing on the next elections instead of on what will happen a hundred years from now. (Location 190) - Note: intellectuals involved in politics - They assert that it is the task of science in general to make predictions, or rather, to improve upon our everyday predictions, and to put them upon a more secure basis; and that it is, in particular, the task of the social sciences to furnish us with long-term historical prophecies. (Location 529) - Their story that democracy is not to last for ever is as true, and as little to the point, as the assertion that human reason is not to last for ever, (Location 552) - In other words, they are disappointed historicists; they are men who, in spite of realizing the poverty of historicism, are unaware that they retain the fundamental historicistic prejudice—the doctrine that the social sciences, if they are to be of any use at all, must be prophetic. (Location 565) - Note: is there no other use of social sciences than to be prophetic - of the simplest and oldest of its forms, the doctrine of the chosen people. This doctrine is one of the attempts to make history understandable by a theistic interpretation, i.e. by recognizing God as the author of the play performed on the Historical Stage. The theory of the chosen people, more specifically, assumes that God has chosen one people to function as the selected instrument of His will, and that this people will inherit the earth. (Location 614) - Note: theology in historicism - There is no doubt that the doctrine of the chosen people grew out of the tribal form of social life. Tribalism, i.e. the emphasis on the supreme importance of the tribe without which the individual is nothing at all, is an element which we shall find in many forms of historicist theories. (Location 622) - Note: tribalism where the collective is more important than the individual is more important in historicism theories - Marx’s historical philosophy substitutes for it the chosen class, the instrument for the creation of the classless society, and at the same time, the class destined to inherit the earth. (Location 637) - In the case of racialism, this is thought of as a kind of natural law; the biological superiority of the blood of the chosen race explains the course of history, past, present, and future; (Location 640) - This very natural approach, natural even to many of us to-day, was superseded by the genius of Heraclitus. The view he introduced was that there was no such edifice, no stable structure, no cosmos. ‘The cosmos, at best, is like a rubbish heap scattered at random’, is one of his sayings. (Location 667) - Note: rubbish heap scattered at random - In order to understand the effect of this revolution, we must remember the stability and rigidity of social life in a tribal aristocracy. Social life is determined by social and religious taboos; everybody has his assigned place within the whole of the social structure; everyone feels that his place is the proper, the ‘natural’ place, assigned to him by the forces which rule the world; everyone ‘knows his place’. (Location 679) - ‘Everything is in flux’, he said; and ‘You cannot step twice into the same river.’ (Location 697) - if the future course of history is first determined, the social engineer believes that a scientific basis of politics would be a very different thing; it would consist of the factual information necessary for the construction or alteration of social institutions, in accordance with our wishes and aims. Such a science would have to tell us what steps we must take if we wish, for instance, to avoid depressions, or else to produce depressions; or if we wish to make the distribution of wealth more even, or less even. In other words, the social engineer conceives as the scientific basis of politics something like a social technology (Plato, as we shall see, compares it with the scientific background of medicine), as opposed to the historicist who understands it as a science of immutable historical tendencies. (Location 868) - Speaking more generally, we can say that the engineer or the technologist approaches institutions rationally as means that serve certain ends, and that as a technologist he judges them wholly according to their appropriateness, efficiency, simplicity, etc. The historicist, on the other hand, would rather attempt to find out the origin and destiny of these institutions in order to assess the ‘true rôle’ played by them in the development of history— evaluating them, for instance, as ‘willed by God’, or as ‘willed by Fate’, (Location 898) - As an elementary illustration, and a first step in our examination, we may refer to the problem of the so-called rules of exogamy, i.e. the problem of explaining the wide distribution, among the most diverse cultures, of marriage laws apparently designed to prevent inbreeding. (Location 6386) - apparent instinct is not rather a product of education, (Location 6391)