Reddit reviews The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 1: The Spell of Plato
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http://www.amazon.com/The-Open-Society-Enemies-Vol/dp/0691019681
The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 1: The Spell of Plato [Paperback]
Karl Raimund Popper
Karl Popper quite convincingly traces modern day fascism to Plato and his ideal city, in The Open Society and its enemies.
From Popper:
I believe that practically all the elements of Plato's political programme can be derived from these demands. They are, in turn based upon his historicism; and they have to be combined with his sociological doctrines concerning the conditions for the stability of class rule. The principal elements I have in mind are:
(A) The strict division of the classes; i.e. the ruling class consisting of herdmen and watch-dogs must be strictly separated from the human cattle.
(B) The identification of the fate of the sate with that of the ruling class; the exclusive interest in this class, and in its unity; and subservient to this unity, the rigid rules for breeding and educating this class, and the strict supervision and collectivization of the interests of its members.
(C) The ruling class has a monopoly of things like military virtues and training, and of the right to carry arms and to receive education and training, and it is excluded from any participation in economic activities, and especially from earning money.
(D) There must be a censorship of all intellectural activities of the ruling class, and a continual propaganda aiming at moulding and unifying their minds. All innovation in education, legislation, and religion must be prevented or suppressed.
(E) The state must be self-sufficient. It must aim at economic autarchy; for otherwise the rulers would either be dependent upon traders, or become traders themselves. The first of these alternatives would undermine their power, the second their unity and the stability of the state.
This programme can, I think, be fairly described as totalitarian
From the voice of Plato himself (emphasis mine):
"The greatest principle of all is that nobody,
whether male or female, should be without
a leader. Nor should the mind of anybody
be habituated to letting him do anything at
all of his own initiative; neither out of
zeal, nor even playfully. But in war and in
the midst of peace - to his leader he shall
direct his eye and follow him faithfully. And
even in the smallest matter he should stand
under leadership. For example, he should
get up, or move, or wash, or take his meals
. . only if he has been told to do so, by long
habit, never to dream of acting independently,
and to become utterly incapable of it."
-- Plato of Athens
Wikipedia resumes this as:
The subtitle of the first volume is also its central premise — namely, that most Plato interpreters through the ages have been seduced by his greatness. In so doing, Popper argues, they have taken his political philosophy as a benign idyll, rather than as it should be seen: a horrific totalitarian nightmare of deceit, violence, master-race rhetoric and eugenics.
In chronological order of my reading them:
And for good measure, The Tao Te Ching (started reading it in high school...still reading it 37 years later), and The Open Society and It's Enemies.
Here are mine..
Five works by Karl Popper, who IMHO is the greatest skeptical thinker who ever lived:
And two books by Nicholas Nassim Taleb, who may be the greatest skeptical thinker currently living:
Taleb has also just come out with another book The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, which is funny and has an important message, but doesn't really go deep into his ideas as the earlier books. Personally I am looking forward to his next book on the subject of "Anti-Fragility", a concept coined by Taleb himself.
Any serious reader of /r/skeptic should be familiar with the ideas put forward by both of these men.
Edit: Formatting.
Louis Hartz: The Liberal Tradition in America
Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies (both volumes)
Eric Fromm's Escape from Freedom
Chalmers Johnson: The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
Hanah Arendt: Origins of Totalitarianism and On Violence
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Capitalism and Slavery
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
INSIDE THE COMPANY: CIA DIARY
Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism
The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling
For more reading, try Karl Popper's Open Society and Its Enemies, vol. 1, and vol. 2.
Try Jacob Bronowski's Science and Human Values.
Also, try Susan Blackmore's The Meme Machine. While this isn't strictly about fallibilism, it describes how memes are an example of the problem-solving method.
Karl Popper says 'Hi'.