The Cambridge Companion to Isaiah Berlin (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)

Cambridge University Press, 10/4/2018
EAN 9781316503058, ISBN10: 1316503054

Paperback, 324 pages, 22.2 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997) was a central figure in twentieth-century political thought. This volume highlights Berlin's significance for contemporary readers, covering not only his writings on liberty and liberalism, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Russian thinkers and pluralism, but also the implications of his thought for political theory, history, and the social sciences, as well as the ethical challenges confronting political actors, and the nature and importance of practical judgment for politics and scholarship. His name and work are inseparable from the revival of political philosophy and the analysis of political extremism and defense of democratic liberalism following World War II. Berlin was primarily an essayist who spoke through commentary on other authors and, while his own commitments and allegiances are clear enough, much in his thought remains controversial. Berlin's work constitutes an unsystematic and incomplete, but nevertheless sweeping and profound, defense of political, ethical, and intellectual humanism in an anti-humanistic age.

Editors' introduction
why Berlin? Why now? Steven B. Smith and Joshua L. Cherniss
Part I. Berlin the Man
1. On Isaiah Berlin Amos Oz
2. The life and opinions of Isaiah Berlin Henry Hardy and Joshua L. Cherniss
Part II. Berlin on Philosophy, the Human Sciences, and Political Theory
3. Berlin, analytic philosophy, and the revival of political philosophy Naomi Choi
4. 'The sense of reality'
Berlin on political judgment, political ethics, and leadership Joshua L. Cherniss
Part III. Berlin and the History of Ideas
5. Berlin on the nature and purpose of the history of ideas Ryan Patrick Hanley
6. Isaiah Berlin on Marx and Marxism Aurelian Craiutu
7. Privileged access
Isaiah Berlin and Russian thought Kathleen Parthe
8. Isaiah Berlin on the enlightenment and counter-enlightenment Steven B. Smith
9. Berlin's romantics and their ambiguous legacy Gina Gustavsson
Part IV. Berlin and Politics
Liberalism, Nationalism, and Pluralism
10. Isaiah Berlin on nationalism, the modern Jewish condition, and Zionism Fania Oz-Salzberger
11. Negative liberty and the Cold War Ian Shapiro and Alicia Steinmetz
12. Isaiah Berlin
contested conceptions of liberty and liberalism Alan Ryan
13. Pluralism, relativism, and liberalism George Crowder
14. Liberalism, nationalism, pluralism
the political thought of Isaiah Berlin William A. Galston
Epilogue.