The Open Society and Its Enemies

The Open Society and Its Enemies is an influential two-volume work by Karl Popper. In The Open Society and Its Enemies, first published in 1945, Popper developed a critique of historicism and a defence of the Open Society, liberal democracy. He also (while defending Plato as a great philosopher) strongly attacked Plato's political views as totalitarian and criticised him for betraying Socrates' humanitarianism (volume 1 is subtitled "The spell of plato"). He further criticised the then-mainstream interpretation of Plato as a strong tendency to idealise away uncomfortable aspects of books such as The Republic - e.g. censorship, eugenics, political violence. This led to a revision of the mainstream view of Plato.