Plato as the enemy of the open society in Karl R. Popper's political philosophy

Karl Popper, widely recognized in scientific circles for his work titled The Logic of Scientific Discovery within the realm of the philosophy of science, also stands out in the field of political philosophy with his opus magnum, The Open Society and Its Enemies. Popper, who claimed to have declared an intellectual war against the totalitarian and/or authoritarian regimes of his time, systematically organized this battle with his concepts and conceptual frameworks. In this context, The Open Society and Its Enemies is both a political philosophy text and an original critique that offers a narrative stretching from Plato to Marx, making it essential for understanding Popper's method of struggle. The first volume of the book, particularly dedicated to Plato, contains severe criticisms against him, whom Popper identified as one of the earliest systematic sources of modern totalitarianism and historicism in the history of political philosophy. The main reason for this is Plato's kallipolis, the ideal society model he attempts to establish in the dialogue The Republic, which resembles a closed society regime in the Popperian sense. The primary themes of Popper's critiques include Plato's principle of privileges for philosopher-kings, the near cessation of social class mobility, the totalitarian moral understanding -as Popper calls it- where the moral situation is equated with actions done for the state, and almost everything being determined by the state. Furthermore, Plato's general criticisms of governance systems and his specific examinations of democracy form the foundation of Popper's analyses. Attempting a critical interpretative endeavor, Popper also adopted a hostile stance towards the ideas of historicism and utopianism, which he saw as the two fundamental pillars of modern totalitarianism within the Platonic thought program. The purpose of this thesis is first to provide the conceptual framework of Popper's political philosophy and then to examine his critiques of Plato, whom he saw as the first systematic defender of historicist ideas and considered a totalitarian. Keywords: open-closed society, historicism, liberalism, utopianism, totalitarianism