Between

Science and History

This essay bridges the two wings of Popper's thinking, political philosophy and philosophy of science, thus steering a middle course between the two major receptions. It offers the double advantage of providing a faithful presentation of Popper's theses on the one hand, and of highlighting the links between the « falsificationist » theory of science and the liberal political thinking which together form the only way to an understanding of Popper's attack on « historicism », particularly Marxism, in his Poverty of Historicism . Popper's political philosophy is extremely aggressive, especially in The Open Society and its Enemies , but makes an effort to stress the point of the controversies it has raised, to present the objections from the Anglo-Saxon camp itself, which are all but unknown to continental philosophy. In this way he facilitates an inquiry into the possibility of a critical application of Popper's theses on history.