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About this quote

What does it mean?
Belief in a perfect political world is dangerous because it exploits a deep human instinct.
In plain terms
Thinking politics can create a perfect world is risky because we naturally seek improvement.
What can you take from it?
Avoid chasing perfect political solutions.

Where it applies

  • political planning
  • ideological debates
  • social reform

Putting it to work

  • reject perfect plans
  • recognize instincts

Questions to consider

  • Why is utopia dangerous?
  • How do we improve without perfection?

Another view

Some political improvements are valuable despite risks.

More from Karl Popper

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  3. 'Natural selection and the emergence of mind' dialectica Vol. 32 (1978), p. 339-355; republished in Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology o…

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