ABSTRACT

In this chapter, we explore one apparent difference between Hayek and Popper. While Popper rejects utopian schemes of any kind, Hayek advocated the need for a liberal utopia, as an ideal to counter both standard left-wing utopian schemes and as an alternative to a merely conservative resistance to radical change. On this issue Popper seems to have a clear advantage, based mainly on the distinction between ideals and obligations. To assert that the society described in John Lennon’s Imagine, would be better than the present world we live in, does not logically imply that anyone ought to act to create such a society. However this is only the start of the argument, not the endpoint.