Philosophy of Isaiah Berlin / Johnny Lyons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lyons, Johnny, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Berlin, Isaiah, 1909-1997.

Berlin, Isaiah.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 276 pages)

Distribution:

[London, England] : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

Place of Publication:

[London, England] : Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

Summary:

"I gradually came to the conclusion that I should prefer a field in which one could hope to know more at the end of one's life than when one had begun.' So thought Isaiah Berlin toward the end of the Second World War, when he decided to bid farewell to philosophy in favour of the history of ideas. In The Philosophy of Isaiah Berlin Johnny Lyons shows that Berlin's approach to intellectual history amounted to the pursuit of philosophy by other means, creating a more original and fruitful engagement with his lifelong subject. By recasting Berlin as a philosopher who took humanity and history seriously, Lyons reveals the underlying unity of his wide-ranging and disparate ideas and throws into sharp relief the enduring moral charm of his outlook. Lyons emphasises aspects of Berlin's thinking that have largely been neglected. These include his recognition of historical contingency and of the importance of truth in human affairs, his scepticism about the so-called implications of determinism for our everyday understanding of freedom, and his deeper reasons for thinking that negative liberty should be valued. This introduction to Berlin's thought, and particularly its examination of these mainly overlooked elements of his outlook, reveals a new Berlin, one with surprising and urgent contemporary relevance to the debates that continue to dominate philosophy, politics and intellectual history today."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Preface

Foreword by Henry Hardy

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

Part 1: General Introduction

Chapter

1 - The Nature of Berlin's Political Philosophy

Part 2: Philosophy

2 - In the beginning'

3 - Kant's Copernican Revolution

4 - The Humanistic Turn

5 - Taking History Seriously

6 - Interlude: Taking Stock

7 - Philosophy, History and Human Understanding

Part Three: Contingency

8 - Philosophy and Belief

9 - The Logic Choppers

Chapter 10 - The Postmodern Appropriation

Chapter 11 - The Hedgehog's Revenge

Chapter 12 - What Are We Left With

Chapter 13 - Reason, History and Liberalism

Part Four: Freedom

Chapter 14 - Theory versus Practice

Chapter 15 - The Central Problem of Freedom

Chapter 16 - Is Determinism Liveable?

Chapter 17 - Truth, Freedom and Liberalism

Chapter 18 - Reimagining the Point and Authority of Philosophy

Part 5: Authenticity

Chapter 19 - Framing the Debate

Chapter 20 - Three Romantics: Hamann, Herder and Kant

Chapter 21 - Smashing the Jigsaw

Chapter 22 - The Liberalism of Romanticism

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350121447

1350121444

9781350121461

1350121460

9781350121454

1350121452

OCLC:

1136963045