The Poverty of Historicism Revisited

Abstract

The Poverty of Historicism was designed as a political pamphlet, a tract for its times, as its dedication makes very clear: memory of the countless men and women of all creeds or nations or races who fell victims to the fascist and communist belief in Inexorable Laws of Human Destiny.' Historicism, as Popper understands it, is not just an intellectual error, of interest only to professional philosophers; it is a prime source of moral and political devastation. It carries with it, or is used to justify, a particular attitude to political reform. For a Popper-defined historicist, political reform, if it is to have any hope of being efficacious, must work with historical laws to change the entire condition of society; for Popper himself it should proceed by piece-meal engineering by setting up, in an experimental spirit, new institutions or attempting to improve, in that same spirit, the manner of working of existing institutions. In short, in attacking historicism, Popper was attacking totalitarianism and defending a meliorist democracy or, more accurately, since Popper has no great political expectations, a democracy which will do something to lessen human suffering.2 He was writing at a time, it must also be remembered, when to call Marxism scientific was to recommend it. (Nowadays to call it humanistic has the same effect.) Popper was particularly,