Popper's Legacy: Rethinking Politics, Economics, and Science

Karl Popper has had an extraordinary influence on scientific and social thought. Widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the twentieth century, he was also a highly influential social and political philosopher, a proponent and defender of the open society. Popper's Legacy examines all aspects of his work, in particular his moral and psychological insights. Once Popper's scientific legacy is couched in political and moral terms, it becomes apparent that his concern for individual autonomy does not come at the expense of institutional guidelines and social conventions. Instead, these guidelines turn out to be essential sanctions for individual freedom. Popper envisions the conduct of the scientific community as paralleling the conduct of any democratically established community, where critical rationality guides the words and actions of all participants and leadership can be changed without violence. Raphael Sassower reveals the debt many intellectual movements - such as feminism, and postmodernism - owe to Popper.