Nearly 80 years ago, Karl Popper gave a spirited philosophical defence of the Open Society in his two-volume work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. In this event, J. McKenzie Alexander, author of a newly published book, The Open Society as an Enemy (LSE Press, 2024), will argue that a new defence is urgently needed because, in the decades since the end of the Cold War, many of the values of the Open Society have come under threat once again.

In recent years, concepts and metaphors of temporal disorder or paradox have become more central to the study of historical time. In this event, Stefanos Geroulanos will discuss the necessity of moving to a more dynamic and conflictual understanding of time, the effect this has on spatial and temporal metaphors, and how temporal conflict may be reconciled with a basic phenomenological or empirical sense of temporal continuity.

In today’s event, Jeffrey Andrew Barash will discuss how historical investigation can reactivate, in unanticipated ways, deep-seated, symbolically charged attitudes, assumptions, and myths from the past. His primary example will be representations and investigations of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era – a timely issue as symbols of the Confederacy are being reclaimed for contemporary political ends.

We live in a time of acute historical anxiety. Uncertainty, disorientation, and insecurity are the words most often used to describe the current conjuncture in our historical understanding. In this event, François Hartog will address some fundamental questions arising from this disorientation: How do we deal with the conflicts between the times of the world and planet time? Doesn’t entering a new cosmos call for a new history: a cosmo-history?