The Open Society and Its Enemies

The beginning of the second volume focuses on Aristotle and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The first chapter summarizes the relevant intellectual development in the West over two millennia—from ancient Greece to modern Europe—through the prism of the Aristotelian influence on European thought. The next chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the key aspects of Hegel’s philosophy—such as the dialectical triad and the philosophy of identity—along with the historic context of Hegel’s political connections to the Prussian government. Popper’s ultimate goal is to highlight the influence of Hegelianism on 20th-century totalitarianism, in which “oracular philosophy” refers to historicist prophesizing.

First, Popper explains that Aristotle’s relevance in the context of the given book lies in his connection to modern European philosophers Hegel and Marx (217). Popper recognizes Aristotelian erudition but considers Aristotle unoriginal. He describes the way in which Aristotle systematized the work of his teacher, Plato, and his advocacy for empiricism in such fields as biology (219). Unlike Plato’s “flashes of penetrating insight” (220), Popper believes that Aristotelian “dry systematization,” along with the need to settle questions once and for all, are attributes “shared by so many mediocre writers of later times” (220).