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The Open Society and its Enemies
Volume 1: The Spell of Plato

by Karl R Popper

		Preface to the First edition
		Preface to the Second Edition
		Acknowledgements
		Introduction
		The SPELL of PLATO
		The MYTH of ORIGIN and DESTINY
	Chapter 1	Historicism and the Myth of Destiny
	Chapter 2	Heraclitus
	Chapter 3	Plato's Theory of Forms or Ideas
		PLATO's DESCRIPTIVE SOCIOLOGY
	Chapter 4	Change and Rest
	Chapter 5	Nature and Convention
		PLATO's POLITICAL PROGRAMME
	Chapter 6	Totalitarian Justice
	Chapter 7	The Principle of Leadership
	Chapter 8	The Philosopher King
	Chapter 9	Aestheticism, Perfectionism, Utopianism
		The BACKGROUND of PLATO's ATTACK
	Chapter 10	The Open Society and its Enemies
		Notes
		Addenda
		Index of Platonic Passages
		Index of Names
		Index of Subjects

PLATO's POLITICAL PROGRAMME

Chapter 9. Aestheticism, Perfectionism, Utopianism

This Chapter is primarily concerned with offering a critique of Plato's approach to social engineering, "which I believe is most dangerous". Popper calls this approach Utopian engineering and compares it with an alternative approach, "which I consider as the only rational one", called piecemeal engineering.

My impresssion is that Popper creates a false dichotomy which results in him conflating things which should be separated. What he is primarily criticising is dictatorship and totalitarianism; what he advocates is consensus and democracy. He also prefers incremental rather than revolutionary change, and criticises aestheticism, which he associates with totalitarianism. This is all in the context of a critique of Plato.

My own interest is in extracting ideas about the pitfalls of Utopian Engineering, so that I can put together ideas on how this can be done without making these mistakes. These notes mainly concern aspects of Popper's material relevant to that interest.

definitions

Utopian	Piecemeal
The utopian approach is as follows: Devise a blueprint for the "Ideal State". Draw up a plan for realising the ideal. (presumably the sequel falls outside the remit of philosophers)	By contrast, piecemeal engineering proceeds: Search for the greatest and most urgent evils of society. Fight them.

differences

Utopian	Piecemeal
may easily lead to an intolerable increase in human suffering	reasonable method of improving the lot of man
a means of continually postponing action	can be applied at any moment
has lead only to the use of violence in place of reason	has so far been successful

Further criticisms of "Utopian Engineering"

It is difficult to reason about an ideal society.
It demands a strong centralised rule of a few, and is likely to lead to dictatorship.
The ideal will not be realised in the lifetime of its advocates, and their successors may have different ideals.
It depends upon holding to the original blueprint.
Requires belief in one absolute and unchanging ideal and in there being rational ways to establish: the ideal the best way to realise the ideal
Difference in opinion which cannot be resolved by rational means will be resolved through violence.
It creates a prejudice in favour of large scale rather than small scale social experiments.
It leads to a dangerous dogmatic attachment to an ideal for which countless sacrifices have been made.

Aestheticism and Radicalism

The Irrationality of Radicalism

Romanticism

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© created 1998/10/1 modified 1998/10/8