Isaiah Berlin: Philosopher of Liberty and Pluralism
Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. He is best known for his work on liberal theory and value pluralism, as well as his lifelong defence of civil liberties and opposition to Marxism and communism.
Early Life and Education
Berlin was born in Riga into a wealthy Russian-Jewish family, the only son of Mendel Berlin, a timber trader, and Marie Volshonok. His father was fluent in Yiddish, Russian, German, French, and English; his mother spoke Yiddish, Russian, and Latvian. The family business, one of the largest timber companies in the Baltics, owned forests in Russia from which timber was floated down the Daugava river to sawmills in Riga.
At age six, Berlin moved to Petrograd, where he lived on Vasilevsky Island and later on Angliiskii Prospekt. He witnessed the February and October Revolutions from his apartment windows and during walks with his governess. A childhood memory of witnessing violence during the February Revolution—a sharpshooter being dragged away by a crowd—marked him with a permanent horror of violence that lasted his entire life. Feeling oppressed by Bolshevik rule, which identified the family as bourgeoisie, the family left Petrograd on 5 October 1920 for Riga. Encounters with antisemitism and difficulties with Latvian authorities led them to move to Britain in early 1921, when Berlin was 11.
Berlin’s native language was Russian, and his English was virtually nonexistent at first, but he reached proficiency within a year. He became fluent in French, German, and Italian, and knew Hebrew, Latin, and Ancient Greek. In later life, despite his fluency in English, his Oxford accent retained increasingly Russian vowel sounds. Berlin was educated at St Paul’s School in London and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He graduated in 1928 with first-class honours in literae humaniores, winning the John Locke Prize for his philosophy papers, outscoring A. J. Ayer. He subsequently took another degree in philosophy, politics and economics, again taking first-class honours. In 1932, at age 23, he was elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, becoming the first unconverted Jew to achieve this fellowship.
Career and Achievements
Berlin was appointed a tutor in philosophy at New College, Oxford. During the Second World War, he worked for British Information Services in New York City from 1940 to 1942, and for the British embassies in Washington, D.C., and Moscow until 1946. In April 1943 he wrote a confidential analysis of members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the Foreign Office. Meetings with the poet Anna Akhmatova in Leningrad in November 1945 and January 1946 had a powerful effect on both of them, with serious repercussions for Akhmatova.
From 1957 to 1967, Berlin was Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1963 to 1964. In 1966 he played a role in creating Wolfson College, Oxford, and became its founding president. He was president of the British Academy from 1974 to 1978. Throughout his career, he translated works by Ivan Turgenev from Russian into English.
Although Berlin became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks were sometimes recorded and transcribed. Many of his spoken words were converted into published essays and books, both by himself and by others, especially by his principal editor from 1974, Henry Hardy. His work on liberal theory and value pluralism, as well as his opposition to Marxism and communism, has had a lasting influence.
Awards and Honors
Berlin was appointed a CBE in 1946, knighted in 1957, and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1971. He received the 1979 Jerusalem Prize for his lifelong defence of civil liberties. In 1994 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at the University of Toronto, for which occasion he prepared a “short credo” known as “A Message to the Twenty-First Century”, to be read on his behalf at the ceremony.
Additional Resources
Annual Isaiah Berlin Lectures are held in Oxford, at Hampstead Synagogue, at Wolfson College Oxford, at the Taylor Institute (organised by Italian Studies at Oxford), at the British Academy, and in Riga.
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