The Open Society and Its Enemies

Popper's war work, written in exile, a defense of the open society against the thinkers who would close it, Plato among them. The test of a government, he argued, is whether it can be changed without violence, whether the people can remove their rulers peacefully. Utopian certainty is the enemy of that test, because the perfect society always seems to justify the imperfect means. A philosopher of science turning his method on the question of how we live together.

The philosopher of science who turned his method on politics and produced a defense of the open society against the thinkers who would close it. He argued that the test of a government is whether it can be changed without violence, and that utopian certainty, including Plato's, is the enemy of that test. The Open Society and Its Enemies was his war work, written in exile, a book he called his contribution to the fight.