The burdens of Berlin's modernity

History of European Ideas

Volumn 22, Issue 5-6, 1996, Pages 369-383

  Steinberg, Jonny ^a  

^a BALLIOL COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0030240484     PISSN: 01916599     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0191-6599(96)00015-0     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. 1. For their comments on an earlier draft of this paper, I am grateful to John Burrow, John Gray, Larry Siedentop, and especially, to Henry Hardy. None of the above agree whole-heartedly with my argument: the usual disclaimers apply.
2. 2. J. Gray, Isaiah Berlin (London: Harper Collins, 1995), p. 1.
3. 3. I. Berlin, Against the Current (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), p. 158.
4. 4. R. Jahanbegloo, Conversations with Isaiah Berlin (London: Peter Halban, 1992), pp. 113-114.
5. 5. I. Berlin, Against the Current (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 113.
6. 6. Ibid., p. 99.
7. 7. Ibid., p. 114 emphasis added.
8. 8. I. Berlin The Crooked Timber of Humanity (New York: Vintage, 1992), p. 204. See also Michael Ignatieff 'Understanding Fascism?' in Edna and Avishai (eds) Isaiah Berlin: A Celebration (London: Hogarth, 1991), pp. 135-145. Ignatieff rightly argues that in positing the inhumanity of fascism, Berlin has opened a Pandora's box in regard to his own anthropology. The following section of this paper explores this issue in greater depth.
9. 8. I. Berlin The Crooked Timber of Humanity (New York: Vintage, 1992), p. 204. See also Michael Ignatieff 'Understanding Fascism?' in Edna and Avishai (eds) Isaiah Berlin: A Celebration (London: Hogarth, 1991), pp. 135-145. Ignatieff rightly argues that in positing the inhumanity of fascism, Berlin has opened a Pandora's box in regard to his own anthropology. The following section of this paper explores this issue in greater depth.
10. 9. M. Ignatieff, Understanding Fascism?, p. 145
11. 10. I. Berlin Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 51.
12. 11. Ibid., pp. 106-107.
13. 12. I. Berlin, Against the Current, pp. 80, 81.
14. 13. Ibid., pp. 217-218.
15. 14. I. Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty, p. 154, note 1.
16. 15. Ibid., pp. 53 and 116.
17. 16. I. Berlin, Against the Current, p. 138.
18. 17. R. Jahanbegloo, Conversations with Isaiah Berlin, p. 158.
19. 18. Ibid., pp. 42-43.
20. 19. Ibid., p. 61.
21. 20. I. Berlin, Against the Current, p. 116.
22. 21. I. Berlin, The Magus of the North: J.G. Hamann and the Origins of Modern Irrationalism (London: John Murray, 1993), pp. 127-128.
23. 22. I. Berlin, The Crooked Timber of Humanity, p. 103.
24. 23. I. Berlin, Against the Current, p. 258.
25. 24. I. Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty, p. 26.
26. 25. J.P. Sartre, The Communists and the Peace, trans. Martha Fletcher, John Kleinschmidt and Philip Berk (New York: Braziller, 1968), p. 706.
27. 26. T. Ball, Reappraising Political Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 227. Ball's citation of Marx is from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (New York, 1964), p. 145.
28. 26. T. Ball, Reappraising Political Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 227. Ball's citation of Marx is from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (New York, 1964), p. 145.
29. 27. I. Berlin, The Crooked Timber of Humanity, pp. 179-180.
30. 28. Marx's theory of history, in Berlin's construal, is nourished both by a vociferously rationalist discourse, and by a classically Romantic narrative. This co-occupation of ostensibly contradictory logics in one body of work reveals an extremely important moment in Berlin's conception of modernity. I return to this shortly.
31. 29. I. Berlin, Russian Thinkers (London: Penguin, 1994), p. 180.
32. 30. I. Berlin, Against the Current, p. 158.
33. 31. I. Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty, p. 145.