CFP: Symposium on Karl Popper and the Open Society

The twentieth anniversary of Karl Popper's death (September 17, 1994) provides a fitting occasion to reflect on Popper's contributions to many fields of inquiry.  Papers are invited in three main areas:

1) Karl Popper's philosophical contributions to scientific method, ethics, and social science (note the special session on Popper-Hayek differences - details below*)
2) The constitutional framework of an open society: approaches to the introduction, governance, and political-legal improvement of open societies; the open society as ideal and as reality; the United States Constitution and the values of an open society.
3) The 100-year crisis of liberalism: the First World War as transformational moment; Karl Popper and political and intellectual change in Europe, 1917-1994; the quest for peace and international law.

*A session of the symposium will be devoted to the recent work of Dr. Mark Notturno regarding differences between Popper and Hayek.  Dr. Notturno collaborated closely with Sir Karl Popper in his final years, editing two collections of Popper's papers published in 1994, and is preparing a construction of Popper's introductory lectures on scientific method based upon transcripts of ten years' of Popper's course lectures at the LSE.  Both Notturno's Science and the Open Society (CEU 2000) and his forthcoming book, Hayek and Popper: On Rationality, Economism, and Democracy, are published with forewords written by George Soros.  In his most recent work, Notturno advances a Popperian critique of Hayek's aversion to social engineering, identifies propensities toward scientism and economism in Hayek's social science, and analyses serious deficiencies in Hayek's discussion of democracy and the rule of law.  Dr. Notturno will share with symposium attendees excerpts from his Hayek and Popper: On Rationality, Economism, and Democracy, to be published by Routledge in November 2014.  Those attendees wishing to prepare a formal response to Dr. Notturno are invited to make known their interest now so that they may receive relevant papers in advance of the symposium.

The symposium will take place on the campus of Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania.

Please submit paper proposals to [email protected].  Proposals should include: title of proposed paper, abstract of no more than 200 words, name and institutional affiliation of author/presenter of paper, email and phone contact details.
Deadline for receipt of proposals: August 11, 2014.  Presenters will be notified by August 20th.
A web-site supporting the symposium will include travel, hotel, and scheduling information.

Please email additional questions to Dr. Philip Benesch, the organizer.