Sir Isaiah Berlin, 1909-1997

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Sir Isaiah Berlin, 1909-1997
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(No Transcript)
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All-Souls College, Oxford (The Warden
and College of the Souls of all Faithful People
deceased in the University of Oxford ) 1438
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• I. Life
• II. Value pluralism and relativism
• III. Two concepts of liberty
• Circumstances
• Positive Liberty
• Act unobstructedly
• If prevented from doing what I would otherwise
  do, I am not free
• Liberty is the same for everyone
• Involves the notion that some sphere of human
  society must be kept independent of social
  control
• This is liberty FROM (ie absence of interference
  from what is beyond the spehre)
• Compare to JS Mill ON LIBERTY (for whom progress
  depends on liberty)

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• Positive Liberty
• Wish to be ones own master
• Liberty TO
• Dominant Self
• Retreat to the Inner Citadel problem for neg.
  liberty(?)
• What if I have desires but cannot pursue them?

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• The question of self realization
• Does freedom come from the use of critical reason
• Political danger of relying on reason
• The temple of Sarastro
• Do problems admit of a solution? What kind(s)?
• Search for Status
• Liberty and Sovereignty
• Tyranny

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• One and the Many
• No Harmony of Values
• Pluralism revisited
• What do we say about other values the bad
  ones?