The Viennese Socrates: Karl Popper and the Reconstruction of Progressive Politics

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The Viennese Socrates: Karl Popper and the Reconstruction of Progressive Politics examines Karl Popper’s attempt to develop a political theory that draws upon Socratic fallibilism and commitment to ethical autonomy while preserving progressive sociological insights and commitment to activism. Philip Benesch argues that Popper’s critique of Marxist theory is largely an endeavor to separate its progressive-activist core from its positivist and uncritical-rationalist entanglements. The author defends Popper against the charges of positivism and scientism leveled by the Frankfurt School, among others. Although he is in no sense an apologist for Popper’s commentary on the classical tradition of philosophy, Benesch contends that Popper’s philosophical contribution is of classical breadth and significance and that it continues and advances «the great conversation» that is the substance of the classical tradition. Table of Contents Preface ix Introduction: Karl Popper, the Viennese Socrates 1 Popper, Socrates, and Antipositivism 2 Popper and Marxism 5 Post-Platonic Progressive Politics 8 Popperian Political Science 11 Challenges to the Popperian Program 14 The Road Ahead 18 1. Encounter with Marxism 21 Revolution and Revelation 22 Marxism and Democracy: Popper’s Critique 25 Marx, Engels, and Democracy 27 The Dictatorship of the Proletariat 29 Marxism and Ethics 34 Historicism: Three Preliminary Criticisms 37 Moral Historicism: an Evaluation 40 2. Capitalism and After 45 Marx’s Central Prophecy 46 The Imperialism and Embourgeoisement Theses 48 The Concentration of Capital 51 Reform or Revolution 52 Evaluation (1) Implications of the Falling Rate of Profit 54 Evaluation (2) Marxism and Social Technology 56 Evaluation (3) Mass-Consumption and Reform 57 Popper and the Labor Theory of Value 60 Alienation and Property Entitlements 63 Measures and Metrics for a ‘Transitional’ Program 65 Coordination and Calculation in Communism 68 3. Threat from the Right 73 The Open and the Closed Society 74 The Closing of the Viennese Enlightenment 78 Patriotism and Ethno-nationalism 79 Pedagogy and School Reform 81 Othmar Spann and Reactionary Social Theory 83 The Alliance of Philosophy and Authoritarian Politics 84 Hegel as the ‘Missing Link’ in the Totalitarian Chain 88 Popper and Hegel: an Evaluation 91 4. Ascent from the Cave 95 Doxa and Episteme 95 Towards a Post-Positivist Philosophy of Science 97 Non-Relativistic Fallibilism 100 Modified Essentialism and Verisimilitude 103 Popper’s Dialectics: Inverting Platonism 105 The Active Search for Understanding 108 Evolutionary Epistemology 110 5. Ethics and Emancipation 115 Science and Ethics 115 Compassion and the Open Society 118 Friendship and the Social Formation of Ethics 120 Ethical Selfhood and Binding Commitment 122 Self-Transcendence 125 Humanitarian Principles: Equalitarianism 128 Humanitarian Principles: Individualism and Self-Mastery 130 Humanitarian Principles: Protectionism (and Paternalism) 132 The Idea of Justice 136 6. Chains of Reason 139 Popperian Science and Political Philosophy 140 The Matter of Metaphysics 141 Hegelianized Marxism: The Dialectic of Defeat 144 The Myth of Popper the Positivist 147 Tubingen and Its Aftermath 150 Antipsychologism and Popperian Sociology 152 Methodological Collectivism 157 Popper and Historical Interpretation 159 Objective Hermeneutics and Situational Logic 161 The Place of Evolution and Science in History 165 7. In Search of Socratic Politics 167 Popper and Platonism 168 Popper, the ‘Socratic Problem,’ and Plato’s Republic 172 Popper and the Crisis of Athenian Democracy 175 An Alternative Interpretation of the Republic 178 Popper and Socratic Politics: an Evaluation 183 8. Law without Sovereignty 187 Conscience and the Rule of Law 187 Democracy without a Sovereign Demos 191 Negative Democracy 194 Popper and Proportional Representation 197 Paradoxes of Popperian Politics 199 Peace and Global Governance 202 Problems of the Post-Cold-War World 207 A Humanitarian Jus Commune 212 Notes 217 Bibliography 269 Index 279