The essays collected in this new volume reveal Isaiah Berlin at his most lucid and accessible He was constitutionally incapable of writing with the opacity of the specialist but these shorter more introductory pieces provide the perfect starting point for the reader new to his work Those who are already familiar with his writing will also be grateful for this further addition to his collected essays The connecting theme of these essays as in the case of earlier volumes is the crucial social and political role past present and future of ideas and of their progenitors A rich variety of subject matters is represented from philosophy to education from Russia to Israel from Marxism to romanticism so that the truth of Heine s warning is exemplified on a broad front It is a warning that Berlin often referred to and provides an answer to those who ask as from time to time they do why intellectual history matters Among the contributions are My Intellectual Path Berlin s last essay a retrospective autobiographical survey of his main preoccupations and Jewish Slavery and Emancipation the classic statement of his Zionist views long unavailable in print His other subjects include the Enlightenment Giambattista Vico Vissarion Belinsky Alexander Herzen G V Plekhanov the Russian intelligentsia the idea of liberty political realism nationalism and historicism The book exhibits the full range of his enormously wide expertise and demonstrates the striking and enormously engaging individuality as well as the power of his own ideas Over a hundred years ago the German poet Heine warned the French not to underestimate the power of ideas philosophical concepts nurtured in the stillness of a professor s study could destroy a civilization Isaiah Berlin Two Concepts of Liberty 1958 This new edition adds a number of previously uncollected pieces including Berlin s earliest statement of the pluralism of values for which he is famous

The Power of Ideas by Berlin, Isaiah published by Princeton University Press (2001) PDF

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