Tư tưởng chính trị xã hội của karl raimund popper những giá trị và hạn chế về mặt triết học tt tiếng anh

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DUONG THI PHUONG THE POLITICAL – SOCIAL THOUGHT OF KARL RAIMUND POPPER ITS PHILOSOPHICAL VALUES AND LIMITATION Major: Philosophy Major code: 9229001 DOCTORAL THESIS SUMMARY HA NOI - 2019 The work was completed at the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Tan Hung Reviewer 1: Prof Dr Nguyen Trong Chuan Reviewer 2: Prof Dr Tran Van Phong Reviewer 3: Prof Dr To Duy Hop The thesis will be defended in front of the PhD Evaluation Committee at the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences at hour minute, day month year ……… The thesis can be found at the National Library and Library of Social Sciences Academy HA NOI - 2019 INTRODUCTION The necessity of the thesis topic Karl Popper was one of the famous philosophers in the world His political and social philosophy contains several new ideas and arguments In our country, although the studies about Karl Popper have increased in number, sofar there has not been any monograph which has been published or any PhD thesis which has been successfully defended on the topic of Karl Popper’s political and social philosophy In order to foster the innovation of the theoretical task, first of all, the Communist Party of Vietnam pointed out one of its shortcomings and inadequacies: “For the past several years, the main subjects in the training programme of the theoretical research staff has mostly been confined to the Marxist - Leninist sciences and not much importance has been attached to the study of other trends and to thereception of the world’s scientific achievements” The Resolution of the Political Bureau (in 2014) indicated the direction: “Expand and intensìfy the study of new ideological trends, doctrines and theories with an objective and dialectical approach and acquire progressive values” Thus the study of Karl Popper’s political and social philosophical thought corresponds to the line of innovation of the Communist Party of Vietnam It will have a dual effect: firstly, a contribution to the development of the branch of History of Philosophy in Vietnam, and secondly, the reception of the progressive values in these philosophical trends in sevice of the building of socialism in our country The study of Karl Popper’s political and social philosophical thought, pointing out its contributions will help improve the scientific approach to several theoretical and practical issues, innovate the method of studying and teaching of the Marxist – Leninist subjects, promote the role of critical thinking, widen democracy and foster the creative role of all individuals in the building of an open society and in the international integration of our country At the same time, the detection of the limitations in Karl Popper’s political and social philosophy will be a contribution to the protection of the theoretical values in the Marxist – Leninist philosophy and the political line of the Communist Party of Vietnam For these reasons, we chose “The Political - Social Thought of Karl Raimund Popper Its Philosophical Values and Limitations”as the topic of our philosophical doctoral thesis Aim and objectives The aim of the thesis is to systematically study and analyze to clarify the basic contents of the political - social philosophical thought of Karl Popper, thereby pointing out its philosophical values and limitations In order to accomplish the above aim, the thesis needs to perform the following tasks: - Study Karl Popper's life and works; the historical cỉrcumstances and the theoretical preconditions for the forming of his political - social philosophical thought - Clarify the basic contents of the political - social philosophical thought of Karl Popper, including his view on social liberalism; his critique of historicism; his concept and method of building of the open society - Analyze the philosophical values of Karl Popper's political social thought to inherit and apply them in the theoretical and practical activities, and point out its limitations in order to protect the correctness of Marxism - Leninism Object and scope of research The research object of the thesis is Karl Popper’s political and social philosophical thought The scope of the thesis is his thought in the two works "The Poverty of Historicism" and "The Open Society and Its Enemies" Theoretical basis and research methodology The thesis is based on the theoretical foundation of Marxism Leninism; Ho Chi Minh's thought and the view and line of the Communist Party of Vietnam The research methodology of the thesis is the dialectical materialism and historical materialism In addition, the thesis also uses a combination of specific methods, such as logic and history, analysis and synthesis, systematization, comparison, the hermeneutic method, the critical method, etc New findings of the thesis In terms of content: The thesis clarifies some important aspects in the political - social philosophical thought of Karl Popper, analyzes and points out its philosophical values and limitations as well as the possibility to relate and apply them in the theoretical and practical activities In terms of method: The thesis offers an objective assessment both in terms of philosophical contributions and limitations of Karl Popper, overcoming the one-sided criticism as before Theoretical and practical significance of the thesis The thesis contributes to the study of the history of the philosophical thought of modern Western schools to inherit their reasonable points to supplement Marxism - Leninism, and to criticize its mistakes to protect the correctness of the Marxist - Leninist philosophy The thesis can be used as a reference for the studying and teaching of the the history of modern Western philosophies Structure of the thesis Chapter 1: Overview of the studies related to the thesis topic Chapter 2: Background and preconditionss for the forming of the social - political philosophical thought of Karl Popper Chapter 3: Basic contents in the political - social philosophical thought of Karl Popper Chapter 4: Philosophical contributions and limitations in the political - social thought of Karl Popper CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW The thesis was done based on the studies of the original works of Karl Popper including “The Open Society and Its enemies” (2 volumes) and “The Poverty of Historicism” The thesis also referred to some of his other works, such as “Autobiography”, “Objective Knowledge”, “The Logic of Scientific Discovery” In addition, the thesis inherited the research results of some domestic and international studies on Karl Popper, which were classified according to the request of each chapter in the thesis 1.1 Studies related to the historical context, theoretical preconditions, the life and works of Karl Popper 1.1.1 Studies related to the context of the forming of the political - social philosophical thought of Karl Popper The "Autobiography" by Karl Popper, with his deep phiosophical reflections in it, is an important and valuable document which really helps study the historical context of the forming of his political - social philosophical thought, his life and scientific works Besides, there are some other relating documents, such as the works on the history of Western modern philosophy by Gilles Dostaler, Luu Phong Dong Ly Quoc Tu, etc., and some online encyclopedias and documents 1.1.2 Studies related to the theoretical preconditions for the forming of the political - social philosophicalthought of Karl Popper Among the studies relating to the theoretical preconditions for the forming of Karl Popper’s political - social philosophical thought, there are: "Hayek's Liberalism" by Gilles Dostaler, which refered to the mutual influences on thought between F Hayek and K Popper; "Bertrand Russell's Philosophy and its Significance" by Vu Manh Toan which presents the content of positivism and its effects on Karl Popper; "Some Contemporary Western Philosophical Trends and Political Ideologies" by Nguyen Tan Hung, which argues that the forming of Karl Popper's political - social philosophical thought was a result of a long process of comparing, constrasting and selecting with thorough consideration after his contact with all the prevailing ideological trends in Austria at that time 1.1.3 Studies mentioning the life and scientific works of Karl Popper Some dictionaries and encyclopedias such as the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Vietnam; the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Wiki free encyclopedia (Wikipedia), the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Britannica Encyclopedia and the New Philosophical Encyclopedia (Russian), etc., all have reserved an important part in Karl Popper article for the basic information about his life and works 1.2 Studies related to the political - social philosophical thought of Karl Popper 1.2.1 Some studies mentioning Karl Popper's social liberal stance In his "Autobiography", Karl Popper talked about his liberal stance and the reason for the transfer of his thought from communism Hung Contemporary to liberalism Western Nguyen Philosophical Tan Trends and in "Some Political Ideologies" devoted a part for Karl Popper's political and social thought The author points out some of the characteristics of liberalism in general to understand what "social liberalism" is 1.2.2 Studies related to Karl Popper‘s concept of the open society Herbert Keuth spent one of the three parts of his book "The Philosophy of Karl Popper" (In part II of Social philosophy) analyzing the political and social philosophical thought of Karl Popper, including the open society and historicism M Cornforth spent chapter III of the book "TheOpen Philosophy and The Open Society" answering issues about the relationship between the open society and the closed society and the path to the open society In chapter VI of the work, M Cornforth gives Karl Popper an answer about the enemy of the open society Ly Quoc Tu in chapter IV of "Karl Raimund Popper" mentions the concept of the open society in Karl Popper's "The Open Society and its Enemies" The author generalized the basic concept of Popper about the open and closed society It can be said that this is a source of material for us to study Popper's concept of the open society Luu Phong Dong in "Modern Western Philosophy" vol IV, mostly analyzes Popper's philosophical thought of science; however, he has a short paragraph about the political philosophical thought of Karl Popper Luong Dinh Hai in the article "Karl Popper – The Open society and its enemies" concretely presents Karl Popper’s conception of the open society and the closed society The author also shows some Marxist points of view that Popper criticizes, then makes his comments on these points 1.2.3 Studies related to Karl Popper's criticism of historicism Nguyen Tan Hung in his paper on Karl Popper published in the Seminar Proceedings on Austrian Philosophy and in his work "Some Western Contemporary Philosophical Trends and Political Ideologies" explained the concept of "historicism" and defined the connotation of this concept with its main characteristics The author delved into Karl Popper’s 5-point argument for the denial of the possibility of social law awareness The author also pointed out the rational as well as the false aspects of Karl Popper’s view on this issue Ly Quoc Tu in ‘Karl Raimund Popper” devoted a great part to present Karl Popper’s views on the criticism of historicism, on his piecemeal social technology The author delved into the above concepts of Karl Popper Finally, the author presented his remarks on these concepts It can be said that this is a precious source of reference which supports our research and is included in our thesis Nguyen Minh Hoan in article: “Karl Popper’s Political Philosophy in ‘The Povery of Historicism’ from the viewpoint of Macxit methodology” made an essential analysis of Popper’s political philosophical views It can be said that in this quite short paper, the author gave a basic generalisation of Popper’s political philosophical view and made valuable comments which contributed to clarifying Popper’s ideas in his criticism of historicism 1.3 Studies concerning the evaluation of the philosophical contributions and limitations in Karl Popper’spolitical - social thought 1.3.1 Studies concerning the evaluaton of the philosophical contributions of Karl Popper’s political and social thought Luong Dinh Hai in“Karl Popper: TheOpen Society and Its Ememies” stated that the study of Popper’s views and arguments can help us to grasp many Marxist theoretical standpoints and the whole of Marxism in general Moreover, it can help us to understand the viewpoints of contemporary Marxist researchers Studying his works helps us to form a 2-sided outlook; two-dimensional thinking; and 12 2.2.3 The influence of Albert Einstein’s theory of Relativity on Karl Popper’ political - social philosophy It can be said that the most importand and the most durable influence is the influence of Einstein’s scientific theory Einstein’s attitude towards his own theory had a strong impression on Popper Einstein had never considered his theory as a dogmas, but he emphasized the role of practical testing It is Einstein’s willing attitude to accept criticism and rejection for his theory that became a methodological basis for K Popper’s falsiability principle as a criteria of the demarcation between scientific and non-scientific theories 2.3 Philosophical and sociological preconditions for the forming of Karl Popper’s political - social philosophy 2.3.1 The influence of the Vienna circle’s logical positivism It can be defined that positivism is a philosophical trend which only believed in “positive knowledge” and rejected all kinds of knowledge which cannot be proved by logic, observation, and experiment It was the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857) who initiated the first form of positivism The second form of positivism was called “empirio-criticism”, the main representatives of which were E Mach (1838 – 1916) and R Avenarius (1843 – 1896) The third form was the Vienna circle’s positivism called “logical positivism” Positivism was one of the important preconditions for the forming of Karl Popper’s philosophy of science, which helped merge him with the trend of philosophy of science in the 20th century Karl Popper shared some views with logical 13 positivists; however, he rejected the positivist view that observation or experience is the starting point of knowledge and criteria of truth Karl Popper did not accept truth in knowledge and claimed that observation and experience has only the function of rejection rather than that of demonstration Karl Popper set forth the principle of falsifiability which was against the Vienna circle’s principle of verifiability 2.3.2 The influence of rationalism and the critical thinking method Karl Popper took the stance of rationalism as opposed to the Vienna Circle’s empiricism K Popper’srationalismhad some similarities and some differences with traditional rationalism Karl Popper acknowledgedthe great role of rationality, innate ideas and intuitive perception, but the key difference between hisrationalism with the traditional one is that: reason is not the criteria of truth and that all the results of rational knowledge are only “conjectures” and uncertain knowledge although it complies with strict logic rules Critical thinking method is the tradition of German - Austrian philosophy I Kant has three philosophical works entitled "Criticism".KarlMarx and Friedrich Engelsused the word "Critique" to name a series of his works According to Popper, reasonis as limited as sensesdue to thepossibility of committing errors,Therefore, he advocated for criticism as a meansof eliminating errors Thus, despite having thestance of rationalism, Karl Popper did not absolutiserational knowledge He sought to overcome the limitations of rationak knowledge by applyingthe critical thinking method The term "critical rationalism" is coined by Popper to refer 14 to his epistemological stance and philosophical method and which were applied in his studies of political and social issues 2.3.3 The influence of Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis and Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology Karl Popper had spent some time for the study of S Freud’s Psychoanalysis and A Adler's Individual Psychology Healso voluntarily worked without pay for a short time in an Adler’s pediatric hospital However he finally did not accept the scienticfic character of these theories 2.3.4 The influence of the socialist thought of Karl Marx In chilhood, K Popper was influenced by the socialist thought from a friend He participated in the socialist youth organization and later became a member of the Communist Party of Austria In the event in 1919, he witnessed people being shot and killed by the police in a demonstration organized by the communists As a result, he doubted the scientific character of Marxism and became a critic of Marxism 2.3.5 The influence of liberalism on Karl Popper Liberalism came into being in the early 19th century in the Enlightenment movement in the West, developeing through several different forms in different historical stages Liberalism is a political philosophical ideology of the liberal parties in the world, maintaining that “liberty” is the leading value in personal and social life Andrew Heywood in his book “Politics” outlined seven elements (or seven characteristics) of liberalism: individualism, personal freedom, reason, equality, tolerance, consensus and constitutionalism Karl Popper's liberal stance was influenced first by his father Although Karl Popper knew Hayek's liberalism, he did not fully 15 accept it Studying all of his works, we will find that Karl Popper is in support of "social liberalism" which recognizes the role of state intervention, unlike Hayek's liberalism with limited state intervention 2.4 An overview of the life and scientific works of Karl Popper Popper, whose full name is Karl Raimund Popper, was born on July 28, 1902 in Vienna (Wien), Austria He was of Jewish descent yethis parents converted to Protestantism before he was born Karl Popper grew up in a family where books and music always played an important role in his life Karl Popper's father, Simon Siegmund Carl Popper (1856-1932), was a doctor of law at the University of Vienna Karl Popper graduated from University of Vienna with a PhD degree, but he mainly lived and worked abroad In 1928, Karl Popper graduated with a doctorate In 1934, he published the first book in German: The Logic of Scientific Discovery In 1937, Karl Popper came to New Zealand and taught philosophy as a senior lecturer at University of Canterbury Here, he wrote two works: "The Poverty of Historicism" and "The Open Society and Its Enemies", published in English After World War II, he and his family migrated to England and taught at the London School of Economics He participated in many scientific activities and wrote many other works which were also published in English and he received several noble rewards CHAPTER BASIC CONTENTS IN KARL POPPER’S POLITICAL - SOCIAL PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT 16 3.1 Karl Popper's conception of social liberalism After leaving communism, Karl Popper transfered to the liberal position He said: "I am not only an empiricist and a rationalist, but also a liberal", and he also declared that he was not dependent on any ideology or any liberal party Unlike classical liberalism which emphasizes personal freedom and advocates for limits to state intervention, social liberalism promotes the role of the state and supports its technical measures Karl Popper expressed his opposition to social injustices and his support for social reforms for social perfection He not only sympathized with but also complemented Marx's analysis of the manifestations of exploitation, oppression, and injustice of the German and Austrian societies at that time Therefore, Karl Popper's political position was considered by researchers as “social liberalism” The role of social liberalism in Karl Popper’s political - social philosophy is expressed in his views on the open society, in his criticizm of historicism, of the totalitarian regime, of the social injustices and in his support for the state's measures for social transformation called "piecemeal social technology" 3.2 Karl Popper’s philosophical viewpoints on the open society Karl Popper was the one who developed the concept of the open society and identified some of its basic characteristics in his own view According to Popper, the open society is a society which is open for everyone to freely participate in its building and creating 3.2.1 The transition from the closed society to the open society 17 Karl Popper established the standards for the developmet of the society from the closed to the open He asserted: Firstly, when people came to realise that the social institutions are created by men (not by God), that the society would go from being closed to being open Secondly, when the clan society disintegrated, individual interests or group interests started to appear As a matter of fact, the transition from the closed to the open society is primarily due to several other important economic factors that Karl Popper had not noticed 3.2.2 Basic characteristics of the open society Firstly, according to Karl Popper, the open society is a society created freely by the people Secondly, the open society does not depend on any historical necessity and laws Thirdly, the open society is a democratic society The state represents the will of the people Therefore, it must follow the people's wishes , rather than make the people follow its laws 3.2.3 On the ways of building the open society Firstly, the open society is built by the people, not by an existing ideology or by the subjective will of a party or an authority Secondly, Popper argued that the open society is built according to a certain "social technology" called “piecemeal social construction", as opposed to the “holistic" or "utopian" method 3.3 Karl Popper’s criticism of historicism as an enemy of the open society 3.3.1 Characteristics and classification of historicism 18 Historicism is the term used by Karl Popper to generalize the common traits in the approach of different schools and philosophical trends Karl Popper defined the comprehension of this concept as follows: + Historicism maintains that the society operates according to certain laws that can be known + Historicism claims that, on the basis of knowledge of the objective laws of the society, we can "predict" the process of the future society + Historicism argues that we can transform the old society and create a completely new one according to the laws that have been known and the ideal models that have been built based on on the forecasts of the long-term future of the society 3.3.2 Some conclusions drawn by Karl Popper from his criticism of historicism - Karl Popper criticized and rejected the holistic approach (the holistic knowledge and transformation of the society) and argued for the piecemeal approach Karl Popper supported the social transformation called "piecemeal social technology" - Karl Popper upheld the role of social experimentation Karl Popper believed that not only natural sciences but also social sciences must go through experiments; experiments only could test social theories and find the errors to eliminate (the principle of falsification) - Karl Popper rejected the possibility of knowledge of social laws Karl Popper believed that in the social life there exist only tendencies and trends which are not laws, so he rejected the 19 possibility of detection of social laws He said that historicism is "confused" when equating the trends with the laws - Karl Popper rejected the historicist view about the possibility of predicting the future Karl Popper's criticism of historicism focused on the rejecting the possibility of predicting history He made a logical argument with statements as follows: (1) The course of human history is strongly influenced by the growth of human knowledge (2) We cannot predict, by rational or scientific methods, the future growth of our scientific knowledge (3) We cannot, therefore, predict the future course of human history (4) This means that we must reject the possibility of a theoretical history (5) The fundamental aim of historicist methods is therefore misconceived; and historicism collapses However, this argument of Karl Popper cannot be used to completely reject the possibility of predicting the future of society in terms of the most general features CHAPTER PHILOSOPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF KARL POPPER’S POLITICAL - SOCIAL THOUGHT 4.1 Philosophical contributions of Karl Popper’s political social thought 20 The political - social philosophy of Karl Popper has a great deal of theoretical and practical contributions as follows: 4.1.1 Karl Popper highlighted the critical spirit in the scientific and social research This is basically a tradition of the German people and plays an essential role in the contemporary era Karl Popper stressed: I equate the rational attitude with the critical attitude Therefore, his philosophical method is called “critical rationalism” The new point that Karl Popper raised is: criticism must be used even against the doctrine which one has considered true since long and especially against one’s own thought His method of critical thinking is of great theoretical and practical significance in our present social conditions 4.1.2 Karl Popper supported the necessary measures of the state in the fight against oppression and injustice Karl Popper disagreed with the extremist liberal views which makes light of the role of the state He argued for the role of the state with certain “social technologies” in the fight against injustices and social deficiencies 4.1.3 Karl Popper proposed a number of new ideas in the view and method of the building of an open society Karl Popper developed the philosophical theory of the open society and pointed out some of its important characteristics He proposed a new philosophical approach and new methods, in which there are certain rational elements regarding the building of an open society The socialist innovation of our country is a process of changing the social development model from the “central planning” - a closed 21 social form, to a new social model: socialism based on the market mechanism, with the openness and international integration, the maximum enhancement of the role of the free creative role of all individuals, and is a form of “open society” Therefore, the study of theories about the open society will help us understand what is meant by the open society; the inevitability of the development from the closed to the open society; the advantages of the open society compared to the closed one; and the ways to develop the open society 4.1.4 Karl Popper distinguished between trends and and laws and pointed out limitations in the knowledge of social laws and in the future prediction Theoretically, this is a valuable contribution of Karl Popper in dícovering mistakes in the tradition of theoretical research In practical terms; we can relate these Karl Popper’s critiques to our past lessons to improve the theory of socialist innovation 4.1.5 Karl Popper pointed out the limitations of the holistic approach and artgued for the piecemeal approach According to Kark Popper, due to the complication of the society, we can only understand and transform it in parts He rejected the holistic approach to society and its transformation as a whole He supported the “piecemeal social technology” 4.1.6 Karl Popper proposed the “Trial – Error” method in social transformation According to Kark Popper, due to the fact that social laws, especially those of the future society cannot be understood thoroughly, the social tranformation and construction is just a “trial” 22 and then there will be an “error elimination” when mistakes are detected This process is called “Trial and Error” by Karl Popper 4.2 Philosophical limitations of Karl Popper’s political social thought 4.2.1 Karl Popper absolutized the ideological elements and practical activities without taking into account the economic factors in the forming and building of the open society Karl Popper said: “we can influence or change the history of man just as we havechanged the face of the earth”; we freely create the society “just as we create new thoughts or new works of art ornew houses or new machinery.” Karl Popper never mentioned the economic factor in the building an open society His concept of the open society is only confined to the field of consciousness, thoughts and free actions of individuals 4.2.2 He rejected the dialectics because he considered it a manifestation of historicism The dialectics from Heraclitus to Hegel and Marx became the subject of Karl Popper’s severe criticism, because he regarded it as a manifestation of historicism In his philosophy of science, Karl Popper fell into a metaphysical and extremist approach When taking this side, he completely denied the other side While pointing out the limitations of the inductive method, he completely rejected it and absolutized the deductive method He only accepted the relativeness and denied the absoluteness of the truth.He only accepted the piecemeal and rejected the holistic approach 23 4.2.3 He failed to apply the historical method in the social research Karl Popper was not able to distinguish between the historical method and historicism Rejecting historicism, he also rejected the historical method Karl Popper failed to apply the historical method in considering the processes of social development As a matter of fact, the closed or open society; the role of the community and individuals all have economic origins from the level of the productive forces and all have their change and ascending development in the historical development 4.2.4 He absolutized personal freedom and did not adequately evaluate the role of the social community The society is made up of individuals; the open society is the result of individual creative activities However, that is just one side of the problem On the other hand, individuals are the products of a certain social community It is a mistake of Karl Popper when he denied the role of the community and identified communism which tribalism 4.2.5 He denied historical necessity and objective laws in the social development In both determinism and indeterminism there are some proper, true and some extremist, false points However, Karl Popper only based on indeterminism in considering human free activities As a matter of fact, there are certain social necessity and objective laws which Karl Popper completely denied However we have to acknowledge that their knowledge, especially the knowledge of the necessity and laws of the future society is extremely complex as compared to that of natural phenomena 24 4.2.6 He completely rejected the possibility of long-term future prediction Actually, the prediction of the long-term future is not an impossibility as being denied by Popper, but the problem is that future prediction can only be made about general aspects Considering Marx’s theory of communism as a result of long-term prediction is not true Lenin used to remark that Marx and Engels were less specific about communism than previous utopian socialists Lenin also objected to Bukharin’s proposal for concretely defining the characteristics of the future socialist society, for according to Lenin, it is the thing that we are not certainly aware of , we have to be cautious CONCLUSION In his political - social philosophy, Karl Popper has contributed to systematizing the theory of the open society with a number of its characteristics and the way of its realisation These contributions are of great significance for the innovation of our country nowadays It contributes to overcome the negative consequences of the previous subsidy period, to build an open society with the high-level promotion of every individual’s freedom and creative spirit However, Karl Popper’s concept of the open society still has many limitations and mistakes As a rationalist, Karl Popper only focused on the role of the reason, denying the role of the experience and especially did not take into account the role of the economic life, of the state and laws in the building of the open society Criticizing "historicism" is also an important part of Karl Popper’s political and social philosophy He has contributed greatly 25 to pointing out the limitations and delusions in the approach to the social history, especially the identification of some temporary social trends with eternal social laws and the prediction of the remote future based on these so-called laws However, Karl Popper has made several mistakes of subjectvity He could not tell the difference between historicism and the hostorical method He only accepted the piecemeal method of social transformationand denied the holistic one To sump up, Karl Popper‘s political – social philosophy, especially his view on the open society and his criticism of historicism, although has certain limitations, contains some valuale theoretical elements which can help improve the theory of socialism and can be applied in the building of the new society in our country nowadays 26 LIST OF SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS BY THE AUTHOR OF THE THESIS Duong Thi Phuong: "Karl Popper’s social liberalism", Journal of Social Sciences Human Resources, No 7, 2017, p.32 2.Duong Thi Phuong: "The concept of Karl Popper about the open society", Journal of Social Sciences Human Resources, No 4, 2018, 2018, p.40 Duong Thi Phuong: "Jean-Francois Lyotard and the postmodern philosophy", in the book: French philosophy from original to modern, Hue University Publishing House, Hue, 2018, p.218 Duong Thi Phuong, Nguyen Tan Hung (Co-author): V.L Lenin’s Theory of Combination of Opposites with the Understading and Resolution of the Relationships in the Socialist-Oriented Market Economy", in the Science Workshop Proceedings "Philosophical issues raised from the document of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam," organised at the Academy of Social Sciences, October 2, 2016 Duong Thi Phuong, Nguyen Tan Hung (Co-author): "Applying V.L Lenin’s theory of combination of opposites to solve current major relationships", Political Theory Journal, No 6, 2017, p.28 Duong Thi Phuong, Nguyen Tan Hung (Co-author): "JeanFrancois Lyotard’s ideas in the book: ‘The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge’", Social Science Information Review, No 1, 2018, p.3 ... M Cornforth gives Karl Popper an answer about the enemy of the open society Ly Quoc Tu in chapter IV of "Karl Raimund Popper" mentions the concept of the open society in Karl Popper' s "The Open... in Karl Popper article for the basic information about his life and works 1.2 Studies related to the political - social philosophical thought of Karl Popper 1.2.1 Some studies mentioning Karl Popper' s... in Karl Raimund Popper devoted a great part to present Karl Popper s views on the criticism of historicism, on his piecemeal social technology The author delved into the above concepts of Karl