CEU Press
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Introduction: Open Society Unresolved: Charting the Contested Terrain
Christof Royer
PART I. Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives on Open Society
Human Nature and the Open Society
Thom Scott-Phillip
In Praise of Coldness: The Open Neighborhood and its Enemies
Rachid Boutayeb
Against Identity: Individuality as the Foundation of Open Society
Gregory Lobo
Empirical Embodiment of Critical Rationalism: Deliberative Theory and Open Society
Gazela Pudar Draško and Predrag Krstić
Open Society as an Achievement: Popper, Gaus, and the Liberal Tradition
Piers Turner
Nozick’s Meta-Utopia as an Open Society
Avery Fox White
Hannah Arendt in the Literature Classroom
Andrea Timar
Can Bergson’s Definition of Open Society Be Useful Today?
Jean-Louis Fabiani
PART II. National and Regional Perspectives on Open Society
The Gender of Illiberalism: New Transnational Alliances against Open Societies in Central and Eastern Europe
Katalin Fábián
Open Society Contested: Liberal Universalism versus Autocratic Functionalism in Hong Kong
Kenneth Ka-Lok Chan
“Sorosoids”: Uses of Labeling in Bulgaria
Lyubomir Terziev
An African Background to the Open Society: Ikenga and Ofo Cultic Figures as Structural Representations of the Enterprising Spirit of the Igbo of Nigeria
Nwankwo Nwaeizeigwe
Imagining the Future of Intelligence in Open Societies: Venturing beyond Secrecy and Scientific Prophecy as Totalitarian Modes of Modernity
Anna Eva Grutza
Open Society in Crisis: Making Sense of Public Health and Expert Advice during COVID-19
Tarun Weeramanthri
List of Contributors
Index
Is the concept of open society still relevant in the 21st century? Do the current social, moral, and political realities call for a drastic revision of this concept? Here fifteen essays address real-world contemporary challenges to open society from a variety of perspectives. What unites the individual authors and chapters is an interest in open society’s continuing usefulness and relevance to address current problems. And what distinguishes them is a rich variety of geographical and cultural backgrounds, and a wide range of academic disciplines and traditions.
While focusing on probing the contemporary relevance of the concept, several chapters approach it historically. The book features a comprehensive introduction to the history and current ‘uses’ of the theory of open society. The authors link the concept to contemporary themes including education, Artificial Intelligence, cognitive science, African cosmology, colonialism, and feminism. The diversity of viewpoints in the analysis reflects a commitment to plurality that is at the heart of this book and of the idea of open society itself.
Christof Royer is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Central European University, Open Society Research Platform.
Liviu Matei is a Professor of Higher Education and Public Policy, and Head of the School of Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London.