Isaiah Berlin
Edited by Henry Hardy (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Liberty is the new and expanded edition of Isaiah Berlin’s Four Essays on Liberty, a modern classic of liberalism. These essays, of which the best known is ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, do not offer a ...
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Liberty is the new and expanded edition of Isaiah Berlin’s Four Essays on Liberty, a modern classic of liberalism. These essays, of which the best known is ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, do not offer a systematic account of liberalism, but instead deploy a view of being, knowledge, and value which was calculated by Berlin to rule totalitarian thinking out of court. The new edition adds to the four, ‘From Hope and Fear set free’, which reinforces Berlin’s argument and which he wanted to include in the original edition. Three further essays, and three autobiographical appendices have been included, so that all Berlin’s principal statements on liberty are gathered together. The whole is introduced by Berlin’s editor, Henry Hardy.Less
Liberty is the new and expanded edition of Isaiah Berlin’s Four Essays on Liberty, a modern classic of liberalism. These essays, of which the best known is ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, do not offer a systematic account of liberalism, but instead deploy a view of being, knowledge, and value which was calculated by Berlin to rule totalitarian thinking out of court. The new edition adds to the four, ‘From Hope and Fear set free’, which reinforces Berlin’s argument and which he wanted to include in the original edition. Three further essays, and three autobiographical appendices have been included, so that all Berlin’s principal statements on liberty are gathered together. The whole is introduced by Berlin’s editor, Henry Hardy.
Ian Harris
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0014
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Ian Harris gives an historical exposition of the main lines of Berlin’s thought bearing on liberty, and within that structure provides a selective listing, with brief comments, on the literature ...
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Ian Harris gives an historical exposition of the main lines of Berlin’s thought bearing on liberty, and within that structure provides a selective listing, with brief comments, on the literature about Berlin.Less
Ian Harris gives an historical exposition of the main lines of Berlin’s thought bearing on liberty, and within that structure provides a selective listing, with brief comments, on the literature about Berlin.
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This short story, written when Berlin was twelve, is his first surviving essay. It reveals the disposition that found expression in his more mature work. Berlin contrasts the settled life of ‘a cosy ...
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This short story, written when Berlin was twelve, is his first surviving essay. It reveals the disposition that found expression in his more mature work. Berlin contrasts the settled life of ‘a cosy little home’ with the crude consequentialism of Commissar Uritsky and its destructive effects. The story is a morality tale: Uritsky meets his just end.Less
This short story, written when Berlin was twelve, is his first surviving essay. It reveals the disposition that found expression in his more mature work. Berlin contrasts the settled life of ‘a cosy little home’ with the crude consequentialism of Commissar Uritsky and its destructive effects. The story is a morality tale: Uritsky meets his just end.
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This briefest of notes, written to help a friend speaking to a popular audience, gives an informal statement of Berlin’s views on liberty, nationalism and the plurality of human goals. It excoriates ...
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This briefest of notes, written to help a friend speaking to a popular audience, gives an informal statement of Berlin’s views on liberty, nationalism and the plurality of human goals. It excoriates ‘the belief that there is one and only one true answer to the central questions which have agonized mankind’ as ‘responsible for … oceans of blood.’Less
This briefest of notes, written to help a friend speaking to a popular audience, gives an informal statement of Berlin’s views on liberty, nationalism and the plurality of human goals. It excoriates ‘the belief that there is one and only one true answer to the central questions which have agonized mankind’ as ‘responsible for … oceans of blood.’
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This short essay is a summary of the main theses of Berlin’s ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, and thus provides a brief introduction to his views.
This short essay is a summary of the main theses of Berlin’s ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, and thus provides a brief introduction to his views.
Robert Wokler and Christopher Brooke
Bryan Garsten (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691147888
- eISBN:
- 9781400842407
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691147888.003.0014
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter focuses on the work of Isaiah Berlin. In 1973, Berlin produced the essay on “The Counter-Enlightenment,” which is commonly said to mark the invention of that term, at least in English. ...
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This chapter focuses on the work of Isaiah Berlin. In 1973, Berlin produced the essay on “The Counter-Enlightenment,” which is commonly said to mark the invention of that term, at least in English. In the years following his retirement, his work on the Counter-Enlightenment enhanced his standing over the past twenty-five years, invigorating keen interest in new circles, most notably among communitarians who had earlier found his liberalism unpalatable. Perhaps even more than his liberalism, however, it is Berlin's pluralism that now forms the mainspring of his reputation. It is largely through his elaboration and embellishment of his notion of the Counter-Enlightenment that his pluralism has come to be seen as the mainspring of his political philosophy as a whole.Less
This chapter focuses on the work of Isaiah Berlin. In 1973, Berlin produced the essay on “The Counter-Enlightenment,” which is commonly said to mark the invention of that term, at least in English. In the years following his retirement, his work on the Counter-Enlightenment enhanced his standing over the past twenty-five years, invigorating keen interest in new circles, most notably among communitarians who had earlier found his liberalism unpalatable. Perhaps even more than his liberalism, however, it is Berlin's pluralism that now forms the mainspring of his reputation. It is largely through his elaboration and embellishment of his notion of the Counter-Enlightenment that his pluralism has come to be seen as the mainspring of his political philosophy as a whole.
Jacob T. Levy
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297123
- eISBN:
- 9780191599767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297122.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Examines and criticizes a number of more common arguments for the moral importance of political action that protects cultural variety. It argues that different cultures do not embody different ...
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Examines and criticizes a number of more common arguments for the moral importance of political action that protects cultural variety. It argues that different cultures do not embody different moralities which are incommensurable and incapable of judging one another. Whatever the truth of the idea of moral or value pluralism, cultural pluralism is not its march through the world. Arguments grounded in diversity fail to take sufficiently seriously the freedom of group members, and lead to an aestheticization of group difference that actively condemns cultural fluidity. Arguments for cultural preservation that are based in collective action problems typically also fail to take group members’ freedom seriously, and require the imputation of preferences to them that the state has no way to truly discern.Less
Examines and criticizes a number of more common arguments for the moral importance of political action that protects cultural variety. It argues that different cultures do not embody different moralities which are incommensurable and incapable of judging one another. Whatever the truth of the idea of moral or value pluralism, cultural pluralism is not its march through the world. Arguments grounded in diversity fail to take sufficiently seriously the freedom of group members, and lead to an aestheticization of group difference that actively condemns cultural fluidity. Arguments for cultural preservation that are based in collective action problems typically also fail to take group members’ freedom seriously, and require the imputation of preferences to them that the state has no way to truly discern.
QUENTIN SKINNER
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197262795
- eISBN:
- 9780191753954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262795.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter analyses Sir Isaiah Berlin's theory of liberty, In particular, it focuses on Berlin's most celebrated contribution to the debate, his essay entitled ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’. Berlin ...
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This chapter analyses Sir Isaiah Berlin's theory of liberty, In particular, it focuses on Berlin's most celebrated contribution to the debate, his essay entitled ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’. Berlin identifies two concepts of liberty, one positive and the other negative. He assumes that, whenever we speak about negative liberty, we must be speaking about absence of interference. The chapter isolates a third concept of liberty. It attempts to show that we have inherited two rival and incommensurable theories of negative liberty, although in recent times we have generally contrived to ignore one of them.Less
This chapter analyses Sir Isaiah Berlin's theory of liberty, In particular, it focuses on Berlin's most celebrated contribution to the debate, his essay entitled ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’. Berlin identifies two concepts of liberty, one positive and the other negative. He assumes that, whenever we speak about negative liberty, we must be speaking about absence of interference. The chapter isolates a third concept of liberty. It attempts to show that we have inherited two rival and incommensurable theories of negative liberty, although in recent times we have generally contrived to ignore one of them.
Matthew H. Kramer
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199247561
- eISBN:
- 9780191601927
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199247560.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
At least since the publication of Isaiah Berlin's famous essay ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ nearly half a century ago, political philosophers have argued vigorously over the relative merits of ...
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At least since the publication of Isaiah Berlin's famous essay ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ nearly half a century ago, political philosophers have argued vigorously over the relative merits of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ accounts of freedom. Matthew Kramer writes squarely within the negative-liberty tradition, but he incorporates a number of ideas that are quite often associated with theories of positive liberty. Much of The Quality of Freedom is devoted to elaborating the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of particular freedoms and unfreedoms; however, the book's cardinal objective is to establish the measurability of each person's overall freedom and of each society's aggregate freedom. On the one hand, Kramer contends that the existence of any particular instance of liberty or unfreedom is a matter of fact that can be confirmed or disconfirmed without any reliance on evaluative or normative considerations. On the other hand, he argues that the extent of each person's overall freedom or unfreedom cannot be ascertained entirely in the absence of evaluative assumptions. By combining those two positions and developing them in detail, Kramer pits himself against all positive accounts of liberty and most negative accounts. In the course of so doing, he aims to demonstrate the rigorous measurability of overall liberty – something that many writers on freedom have casually dismissed as impossible. Although Kramer concentrates principally on constructing a systematic analysis of socio-political freedom, he engages critically with the work of many of the leading contemporary writers on the topic.Less
At least since the publication of Isaiah Berlin's famous essay ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ nearly half a century ago, political philosophers have argued vigorously over the relative merits of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ accounts of freedom. Matthew Kramer writes squarely within the negative-liberty tradition, but he incorporates a number of ideas that are quite often associated with theories of positive liberty. Much of The Quality of Freedom is devoted to elaborating the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of particular freedoms and unfreedoms; however, the book's cardinal objective is to establish the measurability of each person's overall freedom and of each society's aggregate freedom. On the one hand, Kramer contends that the existence of any particular instance of liberty or unfreedom is a matter of fact that can be confirmed or disconfirmed without any reliance on evaluative or normative considerations. On the other hand, he argues that the extent of each person's overall freedom or unfreedom cannot be ascertained entirely in the absence of evaluative assumptions. By combining those two positions and developing them in detail, Kramer pits himself against all positive accounts of liberty and most negative accounts. In the course of so doing, he aims to demonstrate the rigorous measurability of overall liberty – something that many writers on freedom have casually dismissed as impossible. Although Kramer concentrates principally on constructing a systematic analysis of socio-political freedom, he engages critically with the work of many of the leading contemporary writers on the topic.
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This item consists of two excerpts from Berlin’s ‘My Intellectual Path’, an autobiographical piece, which was the last essay he wrote. It was written to help introduce Chinese students of philosophy ...
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This item consists of two excerpts from Berlin’s ‘My Intellectual Path’, an autobiographical piece, which was the last essay he wrote. It was written to help introduce Chinese students of philosophy to contemporary western philosophy. The portions reprinted here give a reminiscence of ‘Historical Inevitability’ and ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’.Less
This item consists of two excerpts from Berlin’s ‘My Intellectual Path’, an autobiographical piece, which was the last essay he wrote. It was written to help introduce Chinese students of philosophy to contemporary western philosophy. The portions reprinted here give a reminiscence of ‘Historical Inevitability’ and ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’.
Alan Ryan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148403
- eISBN:
- 9781400841950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148403.003.0021
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter examines Isaiah Berlin's political theory, with a particular focus on his argument for a kind of liberalism suited to a pluralist culture such as our own. It also asks why Berlin did not ...
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This chapter examines Isaiah Berlin's political theory, with a particular focus on his argument for a kind of liberalism suited to a pluralist culture such as our own. It also asks why Berlin did not confront more directly the difficulty that all commentators have addressed: that pluralism is not particularly the natural ally of liberalism. After some biographical background, the chapter moves to Berlin as a historian of ideas, a student of distinctively Russian social and political themes, and a defender of a distinctively pluralist, anti-utopian liberalism. The division is artificial in the extreme, and the issues raised in each area of discussion are inextricably intertwined. The not particularly liberal Niccolo Machiavelli is invoked in aid of a liberal moral pluralism, as is the much more liberal Russian Alexander Herzen.Less
This chapter examines Isaiah Berlin's political theory, with a particular focus on his argument for a kind of liberalism suited to a pluralist culture such as our own. It also asks why Berlin did not confront more directly the difficulty that all commentators have addressed: that pluralism is not particularly the natural ally of liberalism. After some biographical background, the chapter moves to Berlin as a historian of ideas, a student of distinctively Russian social and political themes, and a defender of a distinctively pluralist, anti-utopian liberalism. The division is artificial in the extreme, and the issues raised in each area of discussion are inextricably intertwined. The not particularly liberal Niccolo Machiavelli is invoked in aid of a liberal moral pluralism, as is the much more liberal Russian Alexander Herzen.
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This item of 1951 gives insight into the development of Berlin’s thinking about liberty and related themes. He identified the crucial importance of ‘the Kantian morality’ for his purposes, and ...
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This item of 1951 gives insight into the development of Berlin’s thinking about liberty and related themes. He identified the crucial importance of ‘the Kantian morality’ for his purposes, and contrasted this with consequentialists, Hegel and Marx.Less
This item of 1951 gives insight into the development of Berlin’s thinking about liberty and related themes. He identified the crucial importance of ‘the Kantian morality’ for his purposes, and contrasted this with consequentialists, Hegel and Marx.
Alan Ryan
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263501
- eISBN:
- 9780191734212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263501.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997), a Fellow of the British Academy, was an extraordinary obituarist and memorialist. In the 1930s, Berlin was part of a small group of young and iconoclastic philosophers that ...
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Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997), a Fellow of the British Academy, was an extraordinary obituarist and memorialist. In the 1930s, Berlin was part of a small group of young and iconoclastic philosophers that included John Austin, Stuart Hampshire, and A. J. Ayer. Ayer was an early convert to logical positivism while Austin, Hampshire and Berlin were not. Berlin’s career was first interrupted and then spectacularly accelerated by the outbreak of World War II. The years he spent in Washington brought Berlin into close contact with the makers of American foreign policy and reshaped his sense of what he might do with his life. Even more important were his postwar encounters with Russian poets, novelists, dramatists and other intellectuals in the winter of 1945–1946. During the 1950s, Berlin became an important figure outside academic life in the broader cultural life of Britain. One of his more surprising insights was that the existence of the state of Israel was a necessity for Jews everywhere. He remained a confirmed liberal Zionist and a good friend of Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel.Less
Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997), a Fellow of the British Academy, was an extraordinary obituarist and memorialist. In the 1930s, Berlin was part of a small group of young and iconoclastic philosophers that included John Austin, Stuart Hampshire, and A. J. Ayer. Ayer was an early convert to logical positivism while Austin, Hampshire and Berlin were not. Berlin’s career was first interrupted and then spectacularly accelerated by the outbreak of World War II. The years he spent in Washington brought Berlin into close contact with the makers of American foreign policy and reshaped his sense of what he might do with his life. Even more important were his postwar encounters with Russian poets, novelists, dramatists and other intellectuals in the winter of 1945–1946. During the 1950s, Berlin became an important figure outside academic life in the broader cultural life of Britain. One of his more surprising insights was that the existence of the state of Israel was a necessity for Jews everywhere. He remained a confirmed liberal Zionist and a good friend of Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel.
G. A. Cohen
Michael Otsuka (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148809
- eISBN:
- 9781400845323
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148809.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter compares and contrasts between the perspectives of the author (G. A. Cohen) and of his mentor, Isaiah Berlin, on the thought of Karl Marx. The discussion is intertwined with the author's ...
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This chapter compares and contrasts between the perspectives of the author (G. A. Cohen) and of his mentor, Isaiah Berlin, on the thought of Karl Marx. The discussion is intertwined with the author's personal experiences and impressions of Berlin, as well as the former's own struggles to better understand Marx. For the author, nothing was more fundamental to Marx's motivation than his perception of the misery which the capitalism of his day imposed upon the working class. In this way Cohen disagrees with Berlin's own view of the relationship in Marx's thought between the march of history and the cause of the proletariat.Less
This chapter compares and contrasts between the perspectives of the author (G. A. Cohen) and of his mentor, Isaiah Berlin, on the thought of Karl Marx. The discussion is intertwined with the author's personal experiences and impressions of Berlin, as well as the former's own struggles to better understand Marx. For the author, nothing was more fundamental to Marx's motivation than his perception of the misery which the capitalism of his day imposed upon the working class. In this way Cohen disagrees with Berlin's own view of the relationship in Marx's thought between the march of history and the cause of the proletariat.
Bernard Bailyn
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264249
- eISBN:
- 9780191734045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264249.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This lecture discusses a ‘recipe for bloodshed’ in terms of the popular derivatives of Isaiah Berlin's doctrines, instead of the formal discourses he discussed. It presents a sketch of the fate of ...
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This lecture discusses a ‘recipe for bloodshed’ in terms of the popular derivatives of Isaiah Berlin's doctrines, instead of the formal discourses he discussed. It presents a sketch of the fate of perfectionist aspirations in the open amplitudes of the Western Hemisphere. The lecture presents a review of several perfectionist projects of Atlantic dimensions, concluding that the horrors Berlin deplored were derived not from the search for perfection, but from the uses and misuses of power.Less
This lecture discusses a ‘recipe for bloodshed’ in terms of the popular derivatives of Isaiah Berlin's doctrines, instead of the formal discourses he discussed. It presents a sketch of the fate of perfectionist aspirations in the open amplitudes of the Western Hemisphere. The lecture presents a review of several perfectionist projects of Atlantic dimensions, concluding that the horrors Berlin deplored were derived not from the search for perfection, but from the uses and misuses of power.
P. J. Marshall (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263501
- eISBN:
- 9780191734212
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263501.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This book contains obituaries of eleven recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Isaiah Berlin, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Keith Hopkins, Peter Laslett, Geoffrey Marshall, John ...
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This book contains obituaries of eleven recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Isaiah Berlin, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Keith Hopkins, Peter Laslett, Geoffrey Marshall, John Roskell, Isaac Schapera, Ben Segal, John Cyril Smith, and Richard Wollheim.Less
This book contains obituaries of eleven recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Isaiah Berlin, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Keith Hopkins, Peter Laslett, Geoffrey Marshall, John Roskell, Isaac Schapera, Ben Segal, John Cyril Smith, and Richard Wollheim.
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This essay examines the origins of three political doctrines of the twentieth‐century—Communism, Fascism, and Marxism—which Berlin linked through attributing to them the assumption that human life ...
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This essay examines the origins of three political doctrines of the twentieth‐century—Communism, Fascism, and Marxism—which Berlin linked through attributing to them the assumption that human life tended in ‘only one direction’. He contrasted this briefly with his own view that human goals were really various and ‘at times incompatible’.Less
This essay examines the origins of three political doctrines of the twentieth‐century—Communism, Fascism, and Marxism—which Berlin linked through attributing to them the assumption that human life tended in ‘only one direction’. He contrasted this briefly with his own view that human goals were really various and ‘at times incompatible’.
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Berlin’s position in ‘Political Ideas’ postulated a human ability to make free choices. His lecture ‘Historical Inevitability’ attacked determinism as a foundation of the view that ‘the world has a ...
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Berlin’s position in ‘Political Ideas’ postulated a human ability to make free choices. His lecture ‘Historical Inevitability’ attacked determinism as a foundation of the view that ‘the world has a direction’ and that society is governed by deterministic laws. Instead, Berlin suggested that determinism was implausible, because it would require radical changes in our ‘moral and psychological categories.’Less
Berlin’s position in ‘Political Ideas’ postulated a human ability to make free choices. His lecture ‘Historical Inevitability’ attacked determinism as a foundation of the view that ‘the world has a direction’ and that society is governed by deterministic laws. Instead, Berlin suggested that determinism was implausible, because it would require radical changes in our ‘moral and psychological categories.’
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This lecture insisted upon negative liberty as the political complement to the human capacity for free choice, and made matching metaphysical claims: the nature of being, and especially the conflicts ...
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This lecture insisted upon negative liberty as the political complement to the human capacity for free choice, and made matching metaphysical claims: the nature of being, and especially the conflicts amongst values, were inconsistent with totalitarian claims. Berlin, arguing along this line, provided an account of the perversion of positive liberty into a warrant for such claims, discussed nationalism, and emphasized the value‐pluralism, now linked so frequently with his name.Less
This lecture insisted upon negative liberty as the political complement to the human capacity for free choice, and made matching metaphysical claims: the nature of being, and especially the conflicts amongst values, were inconsistent with totalitarian claims. Berlin, arguing along this line, provided an account of the perversion of positive liberty into a warrant for such claims, discussed nationalism, and emphasized the value‐pluralism, now linked so frequently with his name.
Isaiah Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249893
- eISBN:
- 9780191598807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924989X.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This lecture explored the tension between liberty and one view of knowledge. Berlin presented Mill not only as an exponent of determinism and an associated consequentialism, but also as someone who ...
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This lecture explored the tension between liberty and one view of knowledge. Berlin presented Mill not only as an exponent of determinism and an associated consequentialism, but also as someone who came to recognize that this doctrine did not fit the facts of experience, and who emphasized, especially, free choice and the importance of negative liberty in society.Less
This lecture explored the tension between liberty and one view of knowledge. Berlin presented Mill not only as an exponent of determinism and an associated consequentialism, but also as someone who came to recognize that this doctrine did not fit the facts of experience, and who emphasized, especially, free choice and the importance of negative liberty in society.
