An open society is a society which allows its members the greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests compatible with the interests of others.

The sentence offers a compact, liberal definition of an “open society” as a balance between individual liberty and mutual constraint: people should be free to pursue their own aims, but not in ways that trample others’ ability to do the same. It frames openness less as a fixed institutional checklist and more as an ethical-political principle for adjudicating conflicts of interest. In Soros’s public thought, “open society” is typically contrasted with authoritarian or dogmatic systems that claim monopoly on truth; this formulation emphasizes pluralism and reciprocity—freedom bounded by the equal standing of others—rather than unlimited license.