ABSTRACT
Elements of the idea of an open society can be found within the works of several philosophers. One finds it both in so-called analytical philosophy, with Karl Popper, and in continental philosophy, with Jacques Derrida. This chapter focuses on the main ideas of these two philosophers in the twentieth century in order to find out how they advocated an open or critical society. The critical possibility in Einstein's theory impressed Popper, because Einstein's equations had implications that could falsify it. To Popper, knowledge consists basically of theories and he looks upon them as always being in competition for our acceptance. Popper delivered both theoretical philosophy trying to establish how scientific theories are tested and practical philosophy stating the case for an open society. Derrida had offered papers critical of structuralist scholarship as early as 1963. Derrida was the first to argue that Searle's criticism is written from ignorance of his work.
