In the Beginning, there was ... Philosophy.

This episode discusses scientific mistakes and blunders which have occurred in the history of science. Mistakes may be based on false information or mistaken assumptions, in which case they are honest mistakes. But if they are based on deliberate misinformation and incompetence, they are downright blunders. We can and should learn from mistakes but blunders are bad news because they have disastrous consequences. If mistakes are based on the wrong assumptions, they are usually be corrected, disproved or dispensed with. Blunders happen because factors external to science (political or religious interference) distort scientific investigations. Literature: Robert Youngson, Scientific Blunders. A brief History of How Wrong Scientists Can Sometimes Be (1998).

Popper's Critical Rationalism consists of two parts: 1) a critical attitude towards science; 2) a critical attitude towards politics. The critical attitude towards science meant that he regarded all scientific knowledge as fallible. No certainty exists in science. All scientific theories are subject to severe tests and are constantly facing the evidence. This is his famous method of falsifiability: all scientific knowledge is fallible. When he applies to it politics, it turns into the fallibility of political leaders and their ideas. It becomes his plea for an open society, in which the rule of law guarantees that political ideas and programmes are subject to rigorous scrutiny to prevent political leaders from doing too much harm. In an open society, the individual enjoys inalienable rights. Literature: Popper, K.: Conjectures and Refutations (1963) Popper, K.: Objective Knowledge (1972) Popper, K.: The Open Society and Its Enemies (2 volumes, 1966) Popper, K.: Unended Quest - An Intellectual Biography (1976) Weinert, F.: Karl Popper - Professional Philosopher and Public Intellectual (2022)

This episode focuses on the Enlightenment in France and Germany. Whilst it shares the basic Enlightenment ideals, there are national characteristics. In France the Enlightenment was shaped by the experience of the Ancien Regime. It is strong opposition to the power of the Catholic Church and Absolute Monarchy. An outstanding achievement of the French Enlightenment is the publication of the Encyclopedia,which was forbidden in 1759. In Germany, the emphasis is on the meaning of the Enlightenment. What does it mean to be enlightened? Immanuel Kant famously defines the Enlightenment as as the emergence from self-inflicted immaturity. The German Enlightenment philosophers also reflect on the limitation of enlightened thinking. The Prussian King Frederick the Great saw himself as an enlightened ruler; so did Catherine the Great in Russia. Both hosted enlightened philosophers and scientists.

The Enlightenment (1688-1804) emerged in three European countries, in rough chronological order in Britain, then France and it ended in Germany. This episode (Part I) starts with a general characterisation of the Enlightenment and then focuses on the Enlightenment in Britain. The Enlightenment owes its momentum to the Scientific Revolution, which brought about a fundamental change in world views. The Enlightenment is an application of scientific principles to the intellectual and social world. In Britain it takes the form of Empiricism and Liberalism (John Locke, David Hume). Literature: (The following texts are a small selection). Berlin, I.: Three Critics of the Enlightenment (ed. by Henry Hardy) Pimlico 2000 Cassirer, E.: The Philosophy of the Enlightenment (1932/2009) Gay, P.: The Enlightenment (Volume 1: 1995; Volume 2: 1970 Hazard, P.: The Crisis of the European Mind (1680-1715) Im Hof, U.: Enlightenment. Making of Europe (1994/1997) Porter, R.: The Enlightenment (Studies in European History) (1990/2001) Porter, R.: Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World. Penguin Press 2000 Randall, J. H. The Career of Philosophy. Vol. 2 (1962/2022) Torre, J. R.: The Enlightenment in America, 1720-1825 (Pickering & Chatto 2011) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/]and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://iep.utm.edu/american-enlightenment-thought/] contain further material.

In this Episode I address the question of whether populism poses a danger to a democratic, open society. I define populism as charismatic leadership with a particular vision. I make a distinction between a democratic regime - with emphasis on the rule of law, the independence of institutions and freedom - and an open society - with the emphasis on accountability, contestability and critical scrutiny of political affairs, established traditions and figures in authority. I argue that it is important to uphold a ope and democratic society because of the fallibility of all political visions. Literature: The classic sources on the open society are: Bergson, H.:  The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (1935; Osmania University Library, Internet Source) Popper, K. R.: The Open Society and Its Enemies. Volume I: Plato. (London: Routledge 1945, 1966) Volume II: Hegel & Marx. (London: Routledge 1945, 1962) Good books on populism are: Mounk, Y.: The People vs. Democracy: Why our Freedom is in Danger & How to Save it. (Harvard University Press 2018) Müller, J.W.: What is Populism? (Penguin Books 2017) Weyland, K.: Democracy’s Resilience to Populism’s Threat. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2024 I have published a review article on this whole question:Weinert, F.: ‘The Open Society Revisited’, in: Social Sciences  2025, 14 (3), 118; ⁠https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030118 [https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030118] On the notion of trust, you may consult my paper: Weinert, F.: ‘The Role of Trust in Political Systems. A Philosophical Perspective.’ Open Political Science 1 (2018): 7-15