BERLIN, ISAIAH

(1909– )

British political philosopher and historian. Born in Russia and educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Berlin held Fellowships at All Souls and New College, before becoming President of Wolfson College, Oxford, from 1966 to 1975. He is best known in political philosophy for the distinction between negative and positive liberty, drawn in his Two Concepts of Liberty (1959): that is, although any statement about liberty ought to specify both what one is free to do (positive) and what one is free from in doing it (negative), nevertheless different political philosophies give the one much more importance than the other. Thus liberalism dwells on the virtues of being free from legal and social constraint; idealist and Hegelian theories stress that the most important kinds of freedoms and opportunities can only exist in a structured society, so that the constraints needed to produce such societies may be a necessary means to the best ends. Berlin has also energetically opposed the value-free, historicist view of history of Marxism, notably in Historical Inevitability (1954).

(1909-97)

   British philosopher. Born in Latvia, he was the first Jewish fellow of All Souls at Oxford, and later became professor of social and political theory and president of Wolfson College, Oxford. He published a range of works concerning philosophy and Marxism. He was knighted in 1957 and received the Order of Merit in 1971. His works include Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, Four Essays on Liberty, Against the Current and The Crooked Timber of Humanity.