The Open Society and Its Complexities: (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics)

A mere two decades ago it was widely assumed that liberal democracy and the Open Society it created had decisively won their century-long struggle against authoritarianism. Although subsequent events have shocked many, F.A. Hayek would not have been surprised that we are in many ways disoriented by the society we have created. As he understood it, the Open Society was a precarious achievement in many ways at odds with our deepest moral sentiments. His path-breaking analyses argued that the Open Society runs against our evolved attraction to "tribalism" that the Open Society is too complex for moral justification; and that its self-organized complexity defies attempts at democratic governance. In his final, wide-ranging book, Gerald Gaus critically reexamines Hayek's analyses. Drawing on diverse work in social and moral science, Gaus argues that Hayek's program was manifestly prescient and strikingly sophisticated, always identifying real and pressing problems. Yet, Gaus maintains, Hayek underestimated the resources of human morality and the Open Society to cope with the challenges he perceived. Gaus marshals formal models and empirical evidence to show that our Open Society is grounded on moral foundations of human cooperation originating in our distant evolutionary past, but has built upon them a complex and diverse society that requires us to rethink both the nature of moral justification and the meaning of democratic self-governance. In these fearful, angry and inwardly-looking times, when political philosophy has itself become a hostile exchange between ideological camps, The Open Society and Its Complexities shows how moral and ideological diversity, so far from being the enemy of a free and open society, can be its foundation.

Table of Contents:
Preface Prolegomenon: Hayek's Three Unsettling Theses 1. Beyond Human Nature? 2. Beyond Moral Justification? 3. Beyond Human Governance? 4. Three Enquiries on The Open Society Part I: The Rise of a Normative Species 5. A Natural History of Moral Order 6. The "Starting Point" 7. The Egalitarian Revolution 8. Self-Interest, Reciprocity and Altruism 9. Internalized, Enforced, Social Rules 10. The Other Side of Morality 11. Cultural Evolution 12. The Rise and (Partial) Fall of Inequality 13. A Complex Moral Species Part II: The Diversity and Self-Organized Complexity 14. Liberalism and the Open Society 15. Understanding Diversity 16. Autocatalytic Diversity 17. Diversity and Complexity 18. The Morality of Self-Organization 19. The Social Contract 20. A Self-Organization Model 21. Moral Diversity in The Open Society Part III: The Complexities of Self-Governance 22. Self-Governance 23. Macro Control 24. Macro Structure 25. Strategic Dilemmas and Polycentricity 26. Meso-Level Goal Pursuit 27. Sectoral Policy 28. Self-Governance from The Bottom-Up: Simplifying The Problems Of Governance 29. Our Moral Nature and Governance in the Open Society 30. Liberal Democracy Epilogue Appendix A Appendix B Bibliography

About the Author :
Gerald Gaus was the James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of Political Economy and Moral Science, at the University of Arizona. His books include Value and Justification, Justificatory Liberalism, The Order of Public Reason and, most recently, The Tyranny of the Ideal: Justice in a Diverse Society.

Review :
This book is organized as a response to three 'unsettling theses' advanced by Friedrich Hayek regarding the Open Society-which for initial purposes we can understand as a society that is, both economically and socially, liberal, tolerant, and diverse.