The Open Society and Its Enemies, Volume I: The Spell of Plato (1945)

Straightforward and coldly logical criticism of sociological historicism as seen first in Plato, and later by Hegel and Marx (Vol. 2). Lucid and thorough. ( )

This book about one of the fundamental thinkers of Western Civilization was written in the shadow of the fascist threat to that civilization, from Popper's first conception of the book in 1938 to its publication in 1943. A blurb on its back cover describes the book as "a survey of Greek philosophy... a history of the rise and fall of Athens, a formal philosophical critique of idealism... and a defense of clarity, scientific method, and democratic procedure." I'm not sure if this should be read before or after having read Plato. It's so lucid, that even in his passionate refutation of Plato's totalitarian tendencies, Popper's book nevertheless makes a good introduction to Platonic ideas. Although personally I've always found Plato among the most lucid, accessible, as well as readable, of philosophers. His dialogues are on the whole brilliant philosophical plays, with plenty of personality and wit.

Popper's book however does make sense of a lot that puzzled me in Plato, and I don't mean the content of the ideas themselves, which are far more understandable than, say, Descartes or Kant, but some of their contradictions. Popper suggests that there's a divide between the philosophy of Socrates, Plato's mouthpiece, and that of Plato himself. That especially in the Apology dealing with Socrates trial, after all a recent event in Athens' history, Plato couldn't do much to alter Socrates' expression of belief in the "open society" of free inquiry, debate and democracy. I certainly saw and admired this Socrates and his precepts in such dialogues as Crito, Apology and Gorgias. But then one finds a rather different spirit in for instance Plato's most famous dialogue, The Republic. (The title of which Popper revealingly claims is more accurately translated, The State.) In the end I found Popper's book a stimulating and thought-provoking study of the connections between such abstruse ideas as Plato's Forms and his advocacy of an unchanging, censorious authoritarianism, between the tensions between the individual and society, and trial and error piecemeal reform over utopian schemes. ( )

Wow. This books gives the kind of insight that's almost impossible to find in more recent books. Popper masterfully combines his interpretation of plato with contemporary political philosophy, philosophy of social science and greek history. Whether he's "right" or "wrong" about plato is not really the relevant question. The value of this book is in that it provides a clearly argued, broad-minded starting point from which you can re-read both plato's works and greek history to reconsider their influence on today's world. I immediately added Popper to my favorite authors after reading this book.

Never trust the benigh dictator.

Anyone who has read Xenophon on Socrates will already have doubts as to how well Plato really portrays his mentor. Popper's book is interesting therefore in his alternative theory of Plato's philosophies and intentions for portraying Socrates as he does.
In itself Popper doesn't teach us anything about Plato's theories that we didn't already know or suspect. Plato's ideal republic simply isn't the sort of place any modern person would want to live in or want anyone else to live in. It's good however to see somebody looking more into the 'why' than the 'what' in regards to this famous philosopher. ( )