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Isaiah Berlin

A Celebration

Isaiah Berlin: A Celebration gathers tributes, reflections, and commentaries on the great thinker and his philosophy, politics, and life-including contributions from Michael Ignatieff, Leon Wieseltier, Ronald Dworkin, Stephen Spender, and many others.

"Some [essays], like Joseph Brodsky’s tribute, are touchingly personal. Others, like G. A. Cohen’s ’Isaiah’s Marx, and Mine,’ mingle personal reminiscences with a more theoretical look at Berlin’s ideas. . . . The volume is a fitting tribute to a thinker famed for his erudition, eclecticism, and clarity of style."—Merle Rubin, The Christian Science Monitor

"One of the many merits of this rich and rewarding collection is the sense-very imperfectly conveyed here-it transmits of the tone of Berlin’s writings and conversation, of the multiplicity of his interests and the variety of his achievements. . . . The essays testify to the character of Berlin’s mind as a luminous prism, in which the cultural traditions of Russia, England and Judaism are marvelously refracted."—John Gray, Times Literary Supplement

"[T]he collection testifies to the learning and profundity of Berlin’s thought and, by way both of reminiscence and influence, to the charm and gaity of its expression."—Anthony Quinton, The Times of London

238 pages | 6 x 9-1/4 | © 2001

Biography and Letters

Philosophy: General Philosophy

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Morgenbesser/Lieberson - Isaiah Berlin
2. David Pears - Philosophy and the History of Philosophy
3. Charles Taylor - The Importance of Herder
4. Richard Wollheim - The Idea of a Common Human Nature
5. Leon Wieseltier - Two Concepts of Secularism
6. Ronald Dworkin - Two Concepts of Liberty
7. G. A. Cohen - Isaiah’s Marx, and Mine
8. Stuart Hampshire - Nationalism
9. Michael Ignatieff - Understanding Fascism?
10. Yael Tamir - Whose History? What Ideas?
11. Stephen Spender - Six Variations
12. Francis Haskell - A Puzzle about Italian Art
13. Bernard Williams - Naive and Sentimental Opera Lovers
14. Alfred Brendel - Does Classical Music Have to be Entirely Serious?
15. Joseph Brodsky - Isaiah Berlin: A Tribute
Notes
Index

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