Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the collection entitled ‘Critical Rationalism and the Open Society’. It aims to reinvent the philosophy of critical rationalism and introduce it to the theory of society. The chapter argues that Popper’s definition of critical rationalism as irrational faith in reason has prevented him from a sociological understanding of the open society. An important question regarding critical rationalism is whether Popper and Bartley establish their critical rationalism upon a sound epistemological foundation. The book addresses the question of how a claim of knowledge, whether metaphysical or empirical, may be refuted in order to prepare the epistemological ground for logical judgment regarding a rational belief. It illustrates how four classical and modern sociologists, namely Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Talcott Parsons and Jürgen Habermas, have based their theories of society on justificationist accounts of rationality.