ABSTRACT
No inclusive society or body politic can entirely be based upon or structured by Contract, nor can a free society be an unqualifiedly Open one. But it does not therefore follow that the only alternative is a "closed" and "tribal" one, whether of the old order or of modern totalitarianism. The stark choice that Karl Popper offers us, like that of the rationalist one between "dogmatism" and "an open mind," needs to be reconsidered. With that in mind, the author considers F.A. Hayek's account of the Great Society and his important distinction between a cosmos and a taxis. The reflections upon the Great Society and the Republic of Science have led the author to conclude that, although a free society cannot be a taxis rather than a cosmos, yet it is one orientated to certain general aims and committed to certain distinctive beliefs. It is also one founded on tradition and traditional authority.
