Karl Popper: “We must plan for…”

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to The Open Society and Its Enemies and files it under Critical Rationalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Karl Popper

Karl Popper (1902–1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science and politics who spent his mature career in New Zealand and at the London School of Economics. Fleeing Nazism, he developed critical rationalism against verificationism and historicist prophecy.

Interpretation

Popper is arguing against the trade-off most people assume. Planning for security tends to centralise authority, and he holds that the result is less secure, because a system that cannot be corrected by those living under it makes worse mistakes and cannot be told. His claim is that freedom is not the opposite of security but a mechanism for achieving it. The argument is institutional rather than moral: the question is which arrangements can detect and repair their own failures.

Why it matters

It applies wherever reliability is the goal: the systems that fail least are usually the ones that can hear about their failures soonest.

Concepts in this quote

Freedom: Freedom is among the most searched and most contested themes in philosophy: what it is to choose, to be responsible, and to live without illegitimate constraint.
Society: Society is the web of institutions, customs, and mutual expectations in which individual freedom takes shape.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Karl Popper. (n.d.). We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0355

MLA: Karl Popper. “We must plan for freedom, and not only….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0355.

Chicago: Karl Popper. “We must plan for freedom, and not only….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0355.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “We must plan for freedom, and not only…”?

The passage is attributed to Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies. The archive attributes this English wording to The Open Society and Its Enemies and files it under Critical Rationalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Karl Popper mean by freedom?

Philosophers distinguish several ideas under the single word freedom. Negative freedom emphasizes non-interference; positive freedom emphasizes the capacity to act according to reasons, virtue, or authentic desire. This passage enters that discussion through freedom, society.