Αλήθεια και ανοιχτή κοινωνία

Abstract

This paper examines the conditions of existence of the open society which are taken to be both institutional and epistemological. The paper is inspired by Karl Popper’s theory of the open society on the one hand and on the other his philosophy of science taking as point of departure that both are interrelated through the idea of criticism. Accepting that criticism is based on the idea of truth, the latter’s operation as a regulative idea is a precondition for the existence of the open society. In fact, it is argued, criticism provides the element of the dynamic of evolutionary perspective. The opitimization of this growth process is only assured in a certain type of society, which is the open society once defining the latter are recognized. But some of these difficulties are overcome through the interplay of ideas and bearers of these ideas, the objective validity of the former and the varying and growing needs, preferences and values of the latter, operating in a reflective equilibrium (in Rawls’ sense) which is never automatically assured. It is the result of constant switches in opinion, but also of criticsm and knowledge growth, weaved in a single process which is unplanned and open-ended.