The Open Society as an enemy: populism, Popper and pessimism post-1989

THIS EVENT IS PART OF THE LSE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES.

Across the world, populist agendas on both the left and right threaten to undermine fundamental principles that underpin liberal democracies, so that what were previously seen as virtues of the ‘Open Society’ are now, by many people, seen as vices, dangers, or threats. As global citizens, we are implicated by a range of contemporary social questions informed by the Open Society; from the free movement of people to the erosion of privacy, no-platforming and the increased political and social polarisation fuelled by social media.

Expanding on Karl Popper’s thinking nearly 80 years since the original publication of his spirited philosophical defence of the Open Society, J. McKenzie Alexander’s new book, The Open Society As An Enemy, argues that a new defence is urgently needed now, in the decades since the end of the Cold War. The Open Society as an Enemy interrogates four interconnected aspects of the Open Society: cosmopolitanism, transparency, the free exchange of ideas, and communitarianism. In re-examining their consequences, Alexander calls for resistance to the forces of reaction, alongside his claim for the concept of the Open Society to be rehabilitated and advanced.

Meet our speakers and chair

J. McKenzie Alexander is Professor in Phi­los­o­phy at the Department of Phi­los­o­phy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE. Professor Alexander’s original field of research concerned evolutionary game theory as applied to the evolution of morality and social norms, though more recently his work explores problems in decision theory, more broadly construed, including topics in formal epistemology.

Ilka Gleibs is currently Associate Professor at LSE in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science. Previously, she was a Lecturer at the University of Surrey and a Post-doc at the University of Exeter in the Department of Psychology. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (Germany) and a MSc (Dipl.-Psych.) from Free University Berlin.

Alan Manning (@alanmanning4) is Professor of Economics at LSE and Director of the Labour Markets Programme in CEP. He is a leading labour economist and an expert on low wage and female labour markets, unemployment, minimum wages, and monopsony in labour markets, on which he has recently published a book: Monopsony in Motion: imperfect competition in labour markets. He will be leading the studies on job polarisation in the Skills and Labour Market Programme.

Sarah Worthington returned to the LSE in 2022 as a professor of law. She specialises in commercial equity, personal property and corporate law. Her research is primarily focused on the controversial issues relating to personal property rights and abuse of power in commercial, not-for-profit and corporate contexts. She is a Barrister and Bencher of Middle Temple and an Academic Member of South Square Chambers, Gray’s Inn. private law in 2020.

More about this event

This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can’t attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE’s YouTube channel.

Launched in May 2018, LSE Press (@LSPress) supports the promotion of high-quality social science research and enables wide public access through the use of open, digital publication methods. We publish books and journals and encourage and facilitate innovative and experimental publications. LSE Press works with authors to develop and launch publications that reflect the LSE founding purpose and mission.

The Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method (@LSEPhilosophy) was founded by Karl Popper in 1946 and is renowned for a type of philosophy that is both continuous with the sciences and socially relevant.

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