Isaiah Berlin S Liberalism

Isaiah Berlin is a towering figure in the world of letters. To the international community of scholars he is best known as the author of Two Concepts of Liberty, yet his career covers many fields in addition to moral and political philosophy: music and literary criticism, historiography, scholarship in the history of ideas, cultural interpretation, translation, teaching, university and arts administration, diplomacy, community work, and broadcasting. This is the first systematic study of Berlin's political ideas to draw on all of his writings, including manuscripts, interviews, and correspondence. Berlin's defence of political liberalism is based on a theory of moral pluralism, a view of human nature, and an interpretation of the historical and cultural development of Western civilization, rather than on abstract arguments about rights. Claude Galipeau brings out the uniqueness and force of this defence while acknowledging, in his discussion of Berlin's Zionism, the tensions and complexities inherent in it. In all his writings Berlin seeks to understand the intricacies and paradoxes of human behaviour. His political thought offers a compelling justification of liberal institutions in the contemporary world and Claude Galipeau's study will be an invaluable guide to the range and depth of his work.

Since his death in 1997, Isaiah Berlin’s writings have generated continual interest among scholars and educated readers, especially in regard to his ideas about liberalism, value pluralism, and "positive" and "negative" liberty. Most books on Berlin have examined his general political theory, but this volume uses a contemporary perspective to focus specifically on his ideas about freedom and liberty. Isaiah Berlin and the Politics of Freedom brings together an integrated collection of essays by noted and emerging political theorists that commemorate in a critical spirit the recent 50th anniversary of Isaiah Berlin’s famous lecture and essay, "Two Concepts of Liberty." The contributors use Berlin’s essay as an occasion to rethink the larger politics of freedom from a twenty-first century standpoint, bringing Berlin’s ideas into conversation with current political problems and perspectives rooted in postcolonial theory, feminist theory, democratic theory, and critical social theory. The editors begin by surveying the influence of Berlin’s essay and the range of debates about freedom that it has inspired. Contributors’ chapters then offer various analyses such as competing ways to contextualize Berlin’s essay, how to reconsider Berlin’s ideas in light of struggles over national self-determination, European colonialism, and racism, and how to view Berlin’s controversial distinction between so-called "negative liberty" and "positive liberty." By relating Berlin’s thinking about freedom to competing contemporary views of the politics of freedom, this book will be significant for both scholars of Berlin as well as people who are interested in larger debates about the meaning and conditions of freedom.

This book offers a succinct re-examination of Berlin’s Cold War liberalism, at a time when many observers worry about the emergence of a new Cold War. Two chapters look closely at Berlin’s liberalism in a Cold War context, one carefully analyses whether Berlin was offering a universal political theory – and argues that he did indeed (already at the time of the Cold War there were worries that Berlin was a kind of relativist). It will be of value for scholars of the cold war and of security issues in contemporary Asia, as well as students of history and philosophy.

A systematic study of Sir Isaiah Berlin's political ideas, drawing on all of his writings. The focus of the text is on Berlin's defence of political liberalism, and in addition to analysing his published work and manuscripts.

Isaiah Berlin remains one of the seminal political philosophers of the twentieth century. This book explains his enduring relevance as we face the challenges of the twenty-first.

An accessible introduction to the ideas of Isaiah Berlin, this work argues that Berlin's critique of the modern enemies of liberty is exciting and powerful, but also that the coherence of his thought is threatened by a tension between its liberal and pluralist elements.