ABSTRACT
This chapter builds theoretical bridges between the literature on leadership and a theory of the open society as a system taken from the philosophy of science, in which science and technology represent the highest cultural resource. Leadership appears at all levels of society (biological, political, economic, and cultural), and the leader’s features found in the literature were analyzed accordingly. According to their closeness with science, technology, and ethics, those features fell into four groups: Features that are predominantly biological or psychological; features that can be enhanced by high culture; features that depend on cultural constructs other than ethics, science, and technology; and features that can be at odds with science, technology, and ethics. High culture is a mainspring for good and effective leadership in open societies, whereas closed societies systematically block high culture and the emergence of leaders.
