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Popper's Theory of the Closed Society Conflicts with His Theory of Research

University of Mannheim, Germany

Popper's theory of the attraction of closed societies conflicts with his theory of research: the former sees rational thought as contrary to man's nature, whereas the latter sees it as an innate psychological process. This conflict arose because Popper developed a theory of the movement from the closed society—Heimat—to civilized society, which sees civilized society as a burden, before he adapted Selz's view of directed thought processes as problem solving, which sees rationality as natural. Rejecting the earlier view and retaining the latter one opens up possibilities for better explanations of closed societies and better means of combating them.

Key Words: closed society • Popper • Selz • problems • institutions

Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 37, No. 2, 185-209 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0048393107299687


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