Critical Rationalism and the Theory of Society Investigating Karl Popper’s philosophy of critical rationalism, Critical Rationalism and the Theory of Society, Volume 1, explores a non-justificationist conception of critical reason and its fundamental outcomes for the theory of society. Through a set of fundamental contributions to epistemology, the theory of rationality and sociology, this volume (a) situates the idea of critical rationalism in its true epistemological context, (b) uses non-justificationist epistemology to reinvent critical rationalism and (c) applies its revised concept of rationality to show how people’s access to critical reason enables them to agree on the common values and social institutions necessary for a peaceful and just social order. These contributions lead the reader to a new epistemological understanding of the idea of critical rationalism and recognition of how a non-justificational concept of reason changes the content of the theory of society. The reader also learns how thinkers, movements and masses apply their critical reason to replace an established social order with an ideal one through activating five types of driving forces of social change: metaphysical, moral, legal, political and economic. Written for philosophers and sociologists, this book will appeal to social scientists such as moral philosophers, legal scholars, political scientists and economists. Masoud Mohammadi Alamuti is a sociologist and faculty member at the Institute for Management and Planning Studies (IMPS) in Tehran, Iran. His research interests include epistemology, sociological theory, sociology of modernity and development, and globalization studies. Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought 152 Stupidity in Politics Its Unavoidability and Potential Nobutaka Otobe 153 Political Correctness: A Sociocultural Black Hole Thomas Tsakalakis 154 The Individual After Modernity: A Sociological Perspective Mira Marody 155 The Politics of Well-Being Towards a More Ethical World Anthony M. Clohesy 156 From Hitler to Codreanu The Ideology of Fascist Leaders Carlos Manuel Martins 157 The Fascist Temptation Creating a Political Community of Experience David Ohana 158 Accumulating Capital Today Contemporary Strategies of Profit and Dispossessive Policies Marlène Benquet and Théo Bourgeron 159 Critical Rationalism and the Theory of Society Critical Rationalism and the Open Society Volume 1 Masoud Mohammadi Alamuti For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/RSSPT Critical Rationalism and the Theory of Society Critical Rationalism and the Open Society Volume 1 Masoud Mohammadi Alamuti First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Masoud Mohammadi Alamuti The right of Masoud Mohammadi Alamuti to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Alamuti, Masoud Mohammadi, author. Title: Critical rationalism and the theory of society / Masoud Mohammadi Alamuti. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge studies in social and political thought ; 159 | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Contents: volume 1. Critical rationalism and the open society Identifiers: LCCN 2020044009 (print) | LCCN 2020044010 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367461317 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003027102 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Critical theory. | Rationalism. | Sociology—Philosophy. Classification: LCC HM480 .A434 2021 (print) | LCC HM480 (ebook) | DDC 301.01—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044009 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044010 ISBN: 978-0-367-46131-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-02710-2 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC To Thomas Gutmann Contents Preface x Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 1 Epistemology and the problem of objective knowledge 9 Section I: knowledge as justified true belief 9 Section II: the dogmatic epistemology of justified true belief 12 Section III: the sceptic epistemology and objective knowledge 20 Section IV: justificationism and the problem of objective knowledge 24 2 Karl Popper’s critical rationalism: an epistemological critique 27 Introduction 27 Section I: Popper’s epistemology: problem situation 27 Section II: Popper’s theory of knowledge 33 Section III: Popper’s philosophy of critical rationalism 38 3 William Bartley’s pancritical rationalism 46 Introduction 46 Section I: Bartley’s non-justificationist epistemology 46 Section II: rationality as a moral attitude: Bartley’s critique 51 Section III: Bartley’s pancritical rationalism 55  4  Towards a non-justificationist epistemology  66 Introduction 66 Section I: objective knowledge: the failure of justificationist solutions 66 Section II: objective knowledge as ‘unfalsified conjecture’ 70 viii Contents Section III: deductive logic: a non-justificational theory 73 Section IV: towards a non-justificational theory of knowledge 82  5  Unfalsified conjecture and critical rationality: towards  a new theory of rationality 87 Introduction 87 Section I: from justification to criticism: the unfinished project of critical rationalism 88 Section II: unfalsified conjecture and the unfinished project of critical rationalism 91 Section III: towards a new theory of the growth of critical rationality 95 Section IV: critical rationality and moral dialogue for common values 103  6  Justificationism and the theory of society  107 Introduction 107 Section I: Emile Durkheim: social epistemology and social order 107 Section II: Max Weber: Kantian epistemology and social order 112 Section III: Talcott Parsons: epistemology and social order 120 Section IV: Jürgen Habermas: epistemology and the theory of society 130 7 Critical rationalism and the theory of human action 143 Introduction 143 Section I: non-justificationism and the rationality of action 143 Section II: the problem situation in action theory 146 Section III: critical rationalism, moral philosophy and human action 148 Section IV: the theory of human action: a critical rationalist formulation 150 Section V: from human action to social order: the rationalization of society 155 8 The theory of social order: a critical rationalist understanding 161 Introduction 161 Section I: the problem of social order: a reformulation 161 Contents ix Section II: emancipatory actions and the five mechanisms of social ordering 165 Section III: ordinary actions and stabilization of social order 178 9 Towards a critical rationalist theory of social change 181 Introduction 181 Section I: emancipatory action and the problem of social change 181 Section II: critical rationalism and the cultural mechanism of social change 182 Section III: governance and social change: a critical rationalist approach 189 Section IV: critical rationalism and the economic mechanism of social change 192 Section V: critical rationalism and the evolution of society 193 10 Critical rationalism and the theory of society: a summary 198 Introduction 198 Section I: non-justificationism: rationality and human action 198 Section II: critical rationalist sociology: an overview 203 Section III: towards a sociology of the open society 206 Index 207