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. ( )

In his second volume Poper turns his attention to the more modern philosophers Hegel and Marx. Again Poppers book doesn't tell anyone who has read Hegel or Marx things they didn't already know or suspect. What's interesting is the way Popper manages to place these philosophers and men into their time and place in history, They way he clearly sees why their theories fall and his suggestions for a successful way forward for an open society, many of which are common place in western democracies. It's also interesting to note Popper doesn't portray Marx as a 'bad' man. Flawed in his theories but not evil as is often insinuated in western philosophy classes. ( )

This book is a must for anyone interested in politics, sociology or philosophy. It’s a full-on academic piece but worth the effort.

KP exposes how fragile democracy is and how easily it can be undermined – even by those acting in its interest. His basic premise is that any society that strives to achieve some idealized goal, however honourable, will develop a totalitarian system. For democracy to survive and benefit the individual, governments must avoid “social engineering” and reserve its interventions to those aspects where the normal methods are failing. Democracy, and the Open Society, thrive only when individuals are allowed to drive the direction of societal development.

Western political philosophy has been build on 2 main thinkers – Plato from Antiquity arguing for a rational organization of society, and Hegel from the modern era who provided the concept of “the people” as the moral basis of the state.

Their respective systems appear to uphold the primacy of the individual in society, but their systems had inbuilt value systems in favour of particular collective ideals that eventually developed into totalitarian systems that achieved the opposite – in Plato’s case, the justification of an oppressive ruling class, and in Hegel’s case, the development of Romanticism, Nationalism and Fascism.

KP argues that both thinkers had ulterior motives for their philosophies and deliberately twisted their logic to support their hidden agendas. He proceeds to uncover these twists through the use of their own arguments and shows how they were able to win over followers to their logic, cover their contradictions and have their ideas accepted for as long as they did.

This is a lengthy work – 2 volumes that stretch to nearly 1,000 pages – and can be challenging to a non-academic orientated reader, but it is an important work with big ideas that is highly enlightening. ( )

7/9/22

Plato (Subject)