Conservatism and the ‘Open Society’

In various of his writings, but especially in “The Open Society and Its Fallacies” (American Political Science Review, December 1960), Professor Willmoore Kendall gave the term “the open society” a bad name among some conservatives. This is unfortunate because, in addition to its exposition by Karl Popper (against whom, along with J. S. Mill, Kendall directed his broadsides in this article), the open society idea has been developed by Henri Bergson and Eric Voegelin in a very different fashion. In fact, Bergson’s formulation in Two Sources of Morality and Religion preceded that of Popper in The Open Society and Its Enemies by 14 years. Furthermore, as George Nash points out in his study of recent conservative thought in America, Kendall greatly admired Voegelin.

In his essay “Immortality Experience and Symbol” (40 Harvard Theological Review, July 1967), Voegelin says of the “open society”:

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Dante Germino

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In various of his writings, but especially in “The Open Society and Its Fallacies” (American Political Science Review, December 1960), Professor Willmoore Kendall gave the term “the open society” a bad name among some conservatives. This is unfortunate because, in addition to its exposition by Karl Popper (against whom, along with J. S. Mill, Kendall directed his broadsides in this article), the open society idea has been developed by Henri Bergson and Eric Voegelin in a very different fashion. In fact, Bergson’s formulation in Two Sources of Morality and Religion preceded that of Popper in The Open Society and Its Enemies by 14 years. Furthermore, as George Nash points out in his study of recent conservative thought in America, Kendall greatly admired Voegelin.

In his essay “Immortality Experience and Symbol” (40 Harvard Theological Review, July 1967), Voegelin says of the “open society”: