--- Fiona Moore nydersdyner@yahoo.co.uk wrote: >
Ahem. So we're somehow more moral than the Inuit, the Australian aborigines and the Zulu? Steven, you *know* where that line of thinking leads.
I agree that terrible acts have been committed in the name of the alleged moral superiority of one culture to another. I agree that this was completely morally wrong. I agree that one should be cautious in offering cross-cultural judgements of the practices of one society to another. Unfortunately, not being a moral relativist, I think the values which are encouraged by the Open Societies to be preferable to pretty much any other values on offer and that there is a correlation between moral, scientific and political progress. (This does not preclude finding a way of reconciling the way of life peoples you have mentioned about with the democratic states in which they now live).
Unfortunately, though, Popper was a sociologist
He was a Philosopher.
and as such had very little contact with "primitive" societies. Most anthropological accounts suggest that in societies in which knowledge is handed down by tradition there is far more discussion and reinterpretation than Popper and his lot think--
To be quite fair to Popper he considered the conflict between Open and Closed societies to arise from internal tensions caused by attaining a certain degree of civilisation. (To follow up on Iain's comments he considers Plato, Hegel and Marx as the great enemies of the Open Society. Well no, he considered Marx and Plato great and Hegel as overrated !) So I don't think that he would have been surprised by this.
check out Bronislaw Malinowski sometime, especially his book called (I think) "Magic, Science and Religion."
Thanks for the tip. By the way, now I'm retiring from the "Is Deliverance Colonialist" stakes may I also salute you as a foeperson worthy of my e-mail.
Stephen.
____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie