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Conversations with Isaiah Berlin: Recollections of a Historian of Ideas
The philosopher, intellectual historian, and proponent of liberal thinking recounts his life, interspersing personal reminiscences with a discussion of the great thinkers who influenced and intrigued him--from Machiavelli to Pasternak.
213 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 1991
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About the author
Isaiah Berlin
205 books795 followersSir Isaiah Berlin was a philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the twentieth century. He excelled as an essayist, lecturer and conversationalist; and as a brilliant speaker who delivered, rapidly and spontaneously, richly allusive and coherently structured material, whether for a lecture series at Oxford University or as a broadcaster on the BBC Third Programme, usually without a script. Many of his essays and lectures were later collected in book form.
Born in Riga, now capital of Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, he was the first person of Jewish descent to be elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. From 1957 to 1967, he was Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1963 to 1964. In 1966, he helped to found Wolfson College, Oxford, and became its first President. He was knighted in 1957, and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1971. He was President of the British Academy from 1974 to 1978. He also received the 1979 Jerusalem Prize for his writings on individual freedom. Berlin's work on liberal theory has had a lasting influence.
Berlin is best known for his essay Two Concepts of Liberty, delivered in 1958 as his inaugural lecture as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford. He defined negative liberty as the absence of constraints on, or interference with, agents' possible action. Greater "negative freedom" meant fewer restrictions on possible action. Berlin associated positive liberty with the idea of self-mastery, or the capacity to determine oneself, to be in control of one's destiny. While Berlin granted that both concepts of liberty represent valid human ideals, as a matter of history the positive concept of liberty has proven particularly susceptible to political abuse.
Berlin contended that under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel (all committed to the positive concept of liberty), European political thinkers often equated liberty with forms of political discipline or constraint. This became politically dangerous when notions of positive liberty were, in the nineteenth century, used to defend nationalism, self-determination and the Communist idea of collective rational control over human destiny. Berlin argued that, following this line of thought, demands for freedom paradoxically become demands for forms of collective control and discipline – those deemed necessary for the "self-mastery" or self-determination of nations, classes, democratic communities, and even humanity as a whole. There is thus an elective affinity, for Berlin, between positive liberty and political totalitarianism.
Conversely, negative liberty represents a different, perhaps safer, understanding of the concept of liberty. Its proponents (such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill) insisted that constraint and discipline were the antithesis of liberty and so were (and are) less prone to confusing liberty and constraint in the manner of the philosophical harbingers of modern totalitarianism. It is this concept of Negative Liberty that Isaiah Berlin supported. It dominated heavily his early chapters in his third lecture.
This negative liberty is central to the claim for toleration due to incommensurability. This concept is mirrored in the work of Joseph Raz.
Berlin's espousal of negative liberty, his hatred of totalitarianism and his experience of Russia in the revolution and through his contact with the poet Anna Akhmatova made him an enemy of the Soviet Union and he was one of the leading public intellectuals in the ideological battle against Communism during the Cold War.
Born in Riga, now capital of Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, he was the first person of Jewish descent to be elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. From 1957 to 1967, he was Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1963 to 1964. In 1966, he helped to found Wolfson College, Oxford, and became its first President. He was knighted in 1957, and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1971. He was President of the British Academy from 1974 to 1978. He also received the 1979 Jerusalem Prize for his writings on individual freedom. Berlin's work on liberal theory has had a lasting influence.
Berlin is best known for his essay Two Concepts of Liberty, delivered in 1958 as his inaugural lecture as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford. He defined negative liberty as the absence of constraints on, or interference with, agents' possible action. Greater "negative freedom" meant fewer restrictions on possible action. Berlin associated positive liberty with the idea of self-mastery, or the capacity to determine oneself, to be in control of one's destiny. While Berlin granted that both concepts of liberty represent valid human ideals, as a matter of history the positive concept of liberty has proven particularly susceptible to political abuse.
Berlin contended that under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel (all committed to the positive concept of liberty), European political thinkers often equated liberty with forms of political discipline or constraint. This became politically dangerous when notions of positive liberty were, in the nineteenth century, used to defend nationalism, self-determination and the Communist idea of collective rational control over human destiny. Berlin argued that, following this line of thought, demands for freedom paradoxically become demands for forms of collective control and discipline – those deemed necessary for the "self-mastery" or self-determination of nations, classes, democratic communities, and even humanity as a whole. There is thus an elective affinity, for Berlin, between positive liberty and political totalitarianism.
Conversely, negative liberty represents a different, perhaps safer, understanding of the concept of liberty. Its proponents (such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill) insisted that constraint and discipline were the antithesis of liberty and so were (and are) less prone to confusing liberty and constraint in the manner of the philosophical harbingers of modern totalitarianism. It is this concept of Negative Liberty that Isaiah Berlin supported. It dominated heavily his early chapters in his third lecture.
This negative liberty is central to the claim for toleration due to incommensurability. This concept is mirrored in the work of Joseph Raz.
Berlin's espousal of negative liberty, his hatred of totalitarianism and his experience of Russia in the revolution and through his contact with the poet Anna Akhmatova made him an enemy of the Soviet Union and he was one of the leading public intellectuals in the ideological battle against Communism during the Cold War.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 22, 2016
نباید از فیلسوف انتظار داشت که سخنور خوبی باشه؛ شاید خود همین کار فلسفی هست که حضور ذهن و آمادگی واکنش سریع رو از فیلسوف میگیره. اما وقتی سراغ شارح اندیشهها میریم انتظارها طور دیگهای هست. انتظارهایی که آیزایا برلین خوب برآورده میکنه. خوش سر و زبان بودن برلین -حتی در سالهای پایانی زندگی- و مطالعات پیشینی مصاحبهکننده این کتاب رو تبدیل به منبع بینظیری کرده برای مرور آرای این تاریخنگار فلسفه سیاسی. البته کتاب برخلاف فصلبندیش بیشتر متکی بر اشخاص هست و نه اندیشهها و بعد از پرداختن به سالهای ابتدایی شروع کار آیزایا برلینٰ، سعی داره با نیمنگاهی به نوشتههای برلین نقبی بزنه به دنیای اندیشهی اشخاصی که برلین روزگاری دربارهشون چیزی نوشته و البته در این بین اتفاقات سیاسی اونروزهای دنیا هم از نظر دور نمونده و مصاحبهکننده سعی کرده بدون لوث کردن بحث نگاه برلین رو به این اتفاقات بازتاب بده که اتفاقا در یک مورد تبدیل به نقاط عطف کتاب شده؛ مصاحبه در سالهای روی کار اومدن گورباچف انجام شده و شانس این رو داریم که آرای این استخونخوردکردهی تاریخ اندیشههای سیاسی رو پیش از انحلال اتحاد جماهیر شوروی در خصوص آیندهی پیش روی روسیه بخونیم
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کتاب دروازهی خوبی هست برای ورود به دنیای آیزایا برلین. کسی که سوال مصاحبهکننده دربارهی فیلسوف بودن یا نبودن خودش رو رندانه به این وادی میکشه که کسی که بخواد شارح یا تاریخنگار خوب فلسفه بشه باید اندازهی یک فیلسوف شبها از پرسشهای بیپاسخ خوابش نبره
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کتاب دروازهی خوبی هست برای ورود به دنیای آیزایا برلین. کسی که سوال مصاحبهکننده دربارهی فیلسوف بودن یا نبودن خودش رو رندانه به این وادی میکشه که کسی که بخواد شارح یا تاریخنگار خوب فلسفه بشه باید اندازهی یک فیلسوف شبها از پرسشهای بیپاسخ خوابش نبره
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December 14, 2014
در این کتاب از هر دری سخن می رود ، مهم نیست که شخصیت فرزانه آیزا برلین را می شناسید یا نه ولی مطمئن باشید بعد از خواندن این کتاب شیفته ی منش والای او خواید شد .
November 29, 2019
Affable dead white male liberal has surprisingly rigid opinions shock!
December 11, 2015
آيزايا برلين به نظرم به دردبخورترين فيلسوف و نظريه پرداز براى زمانه ماست. براى من خيلى جالب است كه همان ابتدا با رامين عهد مى كند كه "به سوالات كُلى پاسخ نمى دهم" كه نشانه يك انسان متمدن است چون گرفتاريهايى كه اين كلى نگريهاى بيهوده به بار آورده را ديده. هرچند سوالات رامين چندان بديع نيستند ولى خواندن كتابى از رامين جهانبگلو يا حضرت برلين به تنهايى مفيد است و فرحبخش چه رسد به اينكه گفتگوى دونفرى آن دو را بخوانيم. در ضمن بايد اشاره كنم آيزايا برلين در نسخه انگليسى كتاب به برداشتش از آنچه در ايران (مشهد) ديده اشاره مى كند كه در نسخه فارسى به دلايل قابل فهم ولى غيرقابل توجيه حذف شده.
October 5, 2020
Çok önemli ve değerli bir kitap. Esasen Türkçe'de Akıntıya Karşı adlı kitabının bir özeti ve toplu bir değerlendirmesi. Tercümesi fena değil. Özellikle Akıntıya Karşı adlı kitabın tercümesinden çok daha iyi. Bir özet ve giriş olarak değerli bir kitap. Liberalizmin ve milliyetçiliğin felsefi temelleri bakımından çok değerli bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum. Berlin, oldukça değerli bir entelektüel olduğunu çok açık biçimde sergilemiş burada. Doğrusu hafızası ve fikir tutarlılığını takdir etmemek elde değil.
January 14, 2014
Evidently, Isaiah Berlin talks exactly the same way that he writes. He actually just talks like that. Crazy.
February 10, 2019
«تنها کاری که از دستمان بر می آید این است که از رنج اضافی انتخاب بکاهیم، بدان معنا که به نوعی نظام چند ارزشی نیازمندیم، نظامی که انسانها در موقعیتی قرار نگیرند که مجبور باشند برخلاف عزیزترین معتقدات اخلاقی خود رفتار کنند.
تصور هرگونه راه حل قطعی امری است متنافر، کسانی که به امکان وجود دنیای بی عیب و نقص معتقدند گمان میکنند که به زعم آنان برای رسیدن به مقصود، دادن هر چند قربانی بهای سنگینی نیست. معتقدند که اگر لازم باشد باید در این راه خون ریخته شود حدود این خونریزی مطرح نیست.
برای این که این املت بی نظیر را بپذیرد باید تخم مرغ ها را بشکنید.»
تصور هرگونه راه حل قطعی امری است متنافر، کسانی که به امکان وجود دنیای بی عیب و نقص معتقدند گمان میکنند که به زعم آنان برای رسیدن به مقصود، دادن هر چند قربانی بهای سنگینی نیست. معتقدند که اگر لازم باشد باید در این راه خون ریخته شود حدود این خونریزی مطرح نیست.
برای این که این املت بی نظیر را بپذیرد باید تخم مرغ ها را بشکنید.»
May 5, 2015
This is a brief but thorough introduction and overview of the life and thought of Isaiah Berlin with his fascinating responses to questions posed by Ramin Jahanbegloo. Covering the breadth of Berlin's thought as well as a brief overview of his life the reader is provided with a taste of what to expect if he as never read any of Berlin's essays. There are discussions of a wide variety of ideas and indications of Berlin's thought processes. If you are like me and have read Berlin the conversations provide a useful review and suggestions for further reading.
April 17, 2012
A very random set of interviews wandering thorought topics the interviewer found interesting. The transcripts are highly colloquial and contain extensive references to fairly obscure writers, poets and philosophers. Berlin's theory of pluralism is discussed to some degree, but most of the material is him simply being asked what he thinks of this writer or that. Much of the material will be over the head of the uninitiated.
May 28, 2017
I was a bit disappointed by this book. The title should be "An interview with Isaiah Berlin". There are no discussions. It is not a conversation. It is only about asking Berlin about his opinion on some random philosophers or writers. Jahanbegloo takes rather the role of a journalist here than a fellow philosopher.
October 16, 2021
整本书基本都是拉明·贾汉贝格鲁简短提问，然后伯林回答。虽然谈不上敷衍，但有时总感觉伯林颇有些意兴阑珊的味道，相当程度上都是在重复自己曾经说过的话。此外，还常常有诸如“贾：您认为现代性的主要特征是什么？ 伯：我认为没有什么现代性的特征。我不知道谈论现代性的特征是什么意思。”此类不来电的鸡同鸭讲的情况……
贾汉贝格鲁问题不少，却鲜有追问和反问。就好像两个拳手在拳台上你一下我一下地出刺拳，重拳都不大看得到，组合拳更成奢望。所以虽然偶有闪光点，但整本书的基调已经沉闷下来。
伯林是整个谈话的主角没错，但贾汉贝格鲁大体上扮演的是一个提问的学生角色，而非一个有足够分量来讨论乃至辩论的同行。若非如此，或许还有可能从伯林那里挖出些更新鲜、更有意思的东西来呢。
贾汉贝格鲁问题不少，却鲜有追问和反问。就好像两个拳手在拳台上你一下我一下地出刺拳，重拳都不大看得到，组合拳更成奢望。所以虽然偶有闪光点，但整本书的基调已经沉闷下来。
伯林是整个谈话的主角没错，但贾汉贝格鲁大体上扮演的是一个提问的学生角色，而非一个有足够分量来讨论乃至辩论的同行。若非如此，或许还有可能从伯林那里挖出些更新鲜、更有意思的东西来呢。
March 23, 2021
I like this book (54,000 words). But I wish it were better.
The first interview is very interesting and one can read 90% of it here.
February 9, 2014
A very interesting read of my favorite philosopher.
December 10, 2014
เข้าใจง่าย และให้ความรู้อย่างกว้างในเรื่องรัสเซีย วรรณกรรม ปรัชญาการเมือง
อ่านแล้วทำให้สนใจอ่านศึกษาเบอร์ลินมากขึ้น รวมถึงผู้สัมภาษณ์ด้วย
อ่านแล้วทำให้สนใจอ่านศึกษาเบอร์ลินมากขึ้น รวมถึงผู้สัมภาษณ์ด้วย
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews