So You Want to Know About Isaiah Berlin?
JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.
© November 18, 2017
Since I reference Isaiah Berlin in some of my writing, I
have been asked if any of Isaiah Berlin’s books are on Kindle or similar readers. I don’t know.
All my Berlin books are hard copies or paperbacks, mostly the
former. As you know, once I become
interested in an author I kind of go bunkers.
I started reading Berlin some 25 to 30 years ago, first in The New York Review, and then I
commenced reading book after book by or about the philosopher of the history of
ideas.
As I’ve told some of my readers, were it not for Henry Hardy,
his dedicated editor, we would not have this rich story of his ideas as he was
neither a systematic thinker nor a dedicated scholar. That said he still managed to weave a rather elaborate
mosaic of his thinking that has relevance today. I will list these books in the order that you
might consider reading them:
(1)
The Crooked Timber of Humanity. This is a resume of his “history of ideas”
touching on various themes that indicate how we are indebted to 18th
and 19th century philosophy and how such philosophy still has
relevance today.
(2)
Isaiah Berlin, A Life by Michael
Ignatieff. It was published in 1998
after ten years of having regular conversations with Berlin. My misfortune is that I read it after rather
than before reading many other Berlin books.
I read it again recently and got much more out of it than the first
time.
(3)
Affirming Letters: 1975-1997.
Again, these letters were edited by Henry Hardy (with the assistance of
Mark Pottle), and represent the final volume of a four volume set. I have not read the previous sets
(Flourishing – 1928-1946; Enlightening – 1946-1960; and Building Letters –
1960-1975). The volume I read was 675
pages, which I suspect is the equivalent of the other volumes. His last letter was October 23, 1997, and he
died November 5, 1997. He dictated his
letters of amazing depth of learning sprinkled with quotes in several
languages, and referencing hundreds if not thousands of prominent people with
whom he worked and socialized over his long life. Each page of text had definitive footnotes
(of which I read every one), giving the reader a fine sense of the man, his
mind and his life. It was better than a
biography, and by chance followed the scope of my own life in a much more minor
way.
(4)
Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico,
Hamann, Herder. This again was highly edited by Henry Hardy
or it would never have come to fruition.
It was important to me because its authors profiled challenged the
rationale and objective positivism of the “Age of the Enlightenment.”
(5)
The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of
Essays. This is a massive work
and one I have highlighted in four colors as each page displayed another level
of the depth of my ignorance. Many of
his shorter works are profiled here, but in abbreviated form if you enjoy
Berlin, and I do, you will enjoy this just dessert.
(6)
The Roots of Romanticism. The crush of the “Age of the Enlightenment”
is still quite apparent in this 21st century, and less so the “Age
of the Romanticism,” which introduced us to the power of poetry, prose, art,
architecture and commentary as frozen music.
This was the age of Goethe, Sartre, Camus and Nietzsche among others
where objective reality was leavened with subjective existence. Berlin hated to write or to make systematic
preparation but that became necessary when giving celebrated lectures such as
the Mellon Series in Washington, DC in 1965.
His ability to dissect and assess history resulted in his rise to prominence.
(7)
Isaiah Berlin by John Gray is
important in this inclusion because he was not a big fan of Berlin or Berlin of
him. It was a way of looking at the
philosopher from the perspective of another philosopher.
(8)
Conversations with Isaiah Berlin and Ramin
Jahanbegloo. The value here is
the same value Krishnamurti has with his audience. Ramin asks some of the questions you, the
reader, might have liked to ask.
(9)
The Sense of Reality. Again, as is Berlin’s comfort level, he gets
to the depths of his own reality through the reality of famous thinkers. But in the process, his own humanity surfaces
which connects with the reader’s own.
(10) Four Essays on Liberty. This is perhaps his most famous book, which
is only a little over 200 pages. He
always wanted to write an opus of some distinction but he didn’t have the
temperament. His concept of positive and
thinking freedom (liberty) became the jewel in the center of his legacy. As no one previously had shown, liberty,
equality and fraternity are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they are not possible without
conflict and sacrifice. He demonstrated
that with “negative freedom” there are no barriers to freedom, but likewise
there are no guarantees of security, protection, stability and safety. When these are embraced, they do so at the
sacrifice of “negative freedom” which now becomes “positive freedom.” Conflict and choice are endemic to man and no
one gets a free ride no matter the level of their wealth, prestige or power.
(11) Against the Current. This was a book, again edited by Henry Hardy
that resonated with me to my roots.
Suddenly, I understood why my life had been conducted as it had been,
why I related to people and society and the corporation as I did, and why I
took the road less traveled without apology.
The irony is that Berlin never did but he could write poetically about such
a road.
(12) Personal Impressions. Here are word portraits of such men as FDR
(Roosevelt), Churchill, Einstein, Huxley, and Pasternak. Berlin was quite an observer of the movers
and shakers of his time and was not above showing a delight in gossip and innuendo.
(13) The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin. If you don’t feel you have the time or
inclination, this short volume would give you a clear assessment through his
essays.
(14) Karl Marx. Berlin was never a communist, but he was
Russian, and as a young man he was commissioned to write this book knowing
nothing about the great man.
(15) Russian Thinkers. He went on to write this book about Tolstoy,
Herzen and others in the tumultuous time of 1848 in Russia.
(16) The Magus of the North. This is a book about J. G. Hamann and his
irrationalism in a time of the dominance of rationalism. I not only liked this book I loved this book.
(17) The Hedgehog and the Fox. This appeared in abbreviated for in “Russian
Thinkers.” Here in this slender volume
(81 pages) he explains an interesting concept.
(18) The Power of Ideas. This is another volume edited by Henry Hardy
which attempts to show in a systematic and somewhat chronological order how
Isaiah Berlin balanced his being a Jew, a Russian from Riga and an Oxford
don. These three identities were his
crown and his cross throughout his life.
(19) Concepts and Categories. This as the title suggests is a systematic
inquiry into the legitimacy of the history of ideas, which became Berlin’s
designated profession as he didn’t believe he had the gravitas or pure
scholarship as a philosopher. He often
took career risks consistently landing on his feet.
(20) Freedom and Its Betrayal: Six
Enemies of Human Liberty. This
might seem like overkill since all of these enemies are historical figures who
have appeared in other Berlin books: i.e., Helvetius, Rousseau, Fichte, Hegel,
Saint-Simon and Maistre.
(21) Isaiah Berlin: A Celebration. This was written six years before his death
in 1991 which he claimed he never read. Many
of the writers were colleagues at Oxford.
This is hardly an exhaustive listing of his works or
interpretations of them, but it is representative.
No comments:
Post a Comment