The Open Society and Its Enemies - Legacy

Legacy

Philosopher Sidney Hook praised The Open Society and its Enemies as a "subtly argued and passionately written" critique of the "historicist ideas that threaten the love of freedom the existence of an open society". Hook calls Popper's critique of the cardinal beliefs of historicism "undoubtedly sound," noting that historicism "overlooks the presence of genuine alternatives in history, the operation of plural causal processes in the historical pattern, and the role of human ideals in redetermining the future." Nevertheless, Hook argues that Popper "reads Plato too literally when it serves his purposes and is too cocksure about what Plato's "real" meaning is when the texts are ambiguous." Moreover, Hook calls Popper's treatment of Hegel "downright abusive" and "demonstrably false," noting that "there is not a single reference to Hegel in Hitler's Mein Kampf."

Reviewing the book's legacy at the end the 20th century, Rajeev Bhargava claims that Popper "notoriously misreads Hegel and Marx," arguing also that the formulation Popper deployed to defend liberal political values is "motivated by partisan ideological considerations grounded curiously in the most abstract metaphysical premises."

Walter Kaufmann's The Hegel Myth and Its Method argues that Popper's section on Hegel is a simplified and misleading representation of Hegel. He claims that Popper's views are based on an incomplete reading of Hegel, suggesting that "Popper has relied largely on Scribner’s Hegel Selections, a little anthology for students that contains not a single complete work." Kaufmann also views Popper as betraying the scientific method he proposes so passionately and instead is "intent on psychologizing the men he attacks." In fact, Kaufmann accuses Popper of using the same distorting methods of which totalitarians are also guilty.

The Open Society Foundations, created by investor George Soros, are inspired in name and purpose by Popper's book.