The moral implications of Science for democratic and cosmopolitan society
The moral implications of Science for democratic and cosmopolitan society

Summary/Abstract: “Science, democracy and The Open Society: A European Legacy?”In his celebrated work The Open Society and its Enemies, Karl Popper coupled science and democracy to suggest that the process of undertaking good science provided insights of a moral and political kind into the just society. Popper proposed a society which was‘open’ in two linked ways: scientific openness afforded sociopolitical improvement, while sociopolitical openness afforded scientific improvement. Taken to its most challenging conclusion, Popper’s work claimed linkage between ‘is’ and‘ought’: between how the world is and how the world ought to be lived. Revisiting The Open Society, this collection of papers reassesses Popper’s ideas in the light of ongoing anthropological research into the ‘science’ and‘democracy’ which people practice today, in a number of social and cultural settings in Europe (including its periphery and its postcolony). Thinking through Popper proves an insightful way of considering topical anthropological issues: modernization, human rights, child care, new medical technologies.

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