The Political Thought of Karl Popper (Hardcover)

This text offers a controversial treatment of Popper's political ideas informed by the author's personal knowledge of Popper together with research on unpublished material in the Popper archive at the Hoover Institute. While sympathetic to Popper's overall approach, he offers criticism of some of his ideas and suggests that political conclusions should be drawn from Popper's ideas which differ from Popper's own views. In the text Popper's political ideas are introduced by way of a discussion of their development, which draws upon archive material. It also includes a critical survey of some of the themes from his "Open Society" and "Poverty of Historicism", and discusses the political significance of some of his later philosophical ideas. Wider themes within Popper's philosophy are drawn on to offer critical re-interpretations of his ethical ideas and social theory. The book concludes with a discussion which suggests that Popper's views should have been closer to classical liberalism than they in fact were.