Sir Isaiah Berlin, OM (June 6, 1909 – November 5, 1997) was a political philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the twentieth century. He excelled as an essayist, lecturer and conversationalist; a brilliant speaker who made rapid and spontaneous delivery of richly referenced material, coherently structured, whether for a lecture series at Oxford University or as a broadcaster on the BBC Third Programme, usually without notes. Many of his lectures were collected later in book form. Western philosophy is a modern claim that there is a line of related philosophical thinking, beginning in ancient Greece (Greek philosophy) and the ancient Near East (the Abrahamic religions), that continues to this day. ... It has been suggested that Contemporary philosophy be merged into this article or section. ... is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... Analytic philosophy (sometimes, analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why (or even if) they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what... The history of ideas is a field of research in history that deals with the expression, preservation, and change of human ideas over time. ... Philosophy of history or historiosophy is an area of philosophy concerning the eventual significance, if any, of human history. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... For other uses, see Ethics (disambiguation). ... This article is about Zionism as a movement, not the History of Israel. ... Positive liberty refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill ones own potential, as opposed to negative liberty, which refers to freedom from restraint. ... The philosophical concept of negative liberty refers to an individuals liberty from being subjected to the authority of others. ... Francisco de Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799) Counter-Enlightenment is a term used in the second half of the twentieth century to refer to a movement that arose in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries in opposition to the eighteenth century Enlightenment. ... Value-pluralism is the idea that two or more moral values may be equally ultimate (true), yet in conflict. ... Jeremy Bentham (IPA: ) (26 February [O.S. 15 February 15] 1748) – June 6, 1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. ... John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873), British philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... The Order of Merit is a British and Commonwealth Order bestowed by the Monarch. ... is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... The BBC Third Programme was the third national radio network broadcast by the BBC, has since become Radio 3, but was originally known (at least within the BBC) as C. The other two were the Home Service (mainly speech based) and the Light Programme, dedicated to light music, usually cover...

Born in Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, he was the first person of Jewish descent to be elected to a prize fellowship at the elite All Souls College, Oxford. From 1957 to 1967, he 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 helped to found Wolfson College, Oxford, and became its first President. He was knighted in 1957, and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1971. He was President of the British Academy from 1974 to 1978. He also received the 1979 Jerusalem Prize for his writings on individual freedom. For other uses, see Riga (disambiguation). ... The subject of this article was previously also known as Russia. ... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... College name All Souls College Collegium Omnium Animarum Named after Feast of All Souls Established 1438 Sister College Trinity Hall, Cambridge Warden Dr. John Davis JCR President None Undergraduates None MCR President None Graduates 8 (approx. ... The Chichele professorial chair in social and political theory is one of the statutory Chichele Professorships at All Souls College, Oxford. ... The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University), located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy (more generally known as the Aristotelian Society) was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880[1] which resolved to constitute a society of about twenty and to include ladies; the society to meet fortnightly, on Mondays at 8 oclock... College name Wolfson College Named after Sir Isaac Wolfson, Bt. ... The dignity of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. ... The British Academy is the United Kingdoms national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. ... The Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society is a biennial literary award given to writers whose work has dealt with themes of human freedom, society, politics, and government. ...

Berlin's work on liberal theory has had a lasting influence. His 1958 inaugural lecture, "Two Concepts of Liberty", famous for its distinction between positive and negative liberty, has informed much of the debate since then on the relationship between liberty and other values. Two Concepts of Liberty was the inaugural lecture delivered by Isaiah Berlin before the University of Oxford on October 31, 1958. ... Positive liberty refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill ones own potential, as opposed to negative liberty, which refers to freedom from restraint. ... The philosophical concept of negative liberty refers to an individuals liberty from being subjected to the authority of others. ...

Life

Berlin was born into a comfortably-off Jewish family, the son of Mendel Berlin, a timber merchant, and his wife Marie, née Volshonok. He spent his childhood in Riga (now Latvia), and later lived in Andreapol´ and Petrograd, witnessing both episodes of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Saint Petersburg  listen (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political and social upheavals in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal and moderate-socialist Provisional Government, resulting in the establishment of Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ...

The family moved to Britain in 1921, when Berlin was ten. In London, he lived in South Kensington and later Hampstead. He was educated at London's prestigious St. Paul's school, then at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he studied Greats (Classics) and PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). As an undergraduate, he notably befriended A. J. Ayer (with whom he was to share a friendly rivalry for the rest of his life), Stuart Hampshire, Maurice Bowra and J. L. Austin. He was to remain at Oxford for the rest of his life, apart from a period working for British Information Services in New York from 1940 to 1942, and the British embassies in Washington, DC, and Moscow from then until 1946. In 1956, he married Aline Halban, née de Gunzbourg. The junction with Old Brompton Road and Pelham Street, outside South Kensington tube station. ... For other places with the same name, see Hampstead (disambiguation). ... St Pauls School St Pauls School is a boys public school, founded in 1509 by John Colet. ... College name Corpus Christi College Named after Corpus Christi, Body of Christ Established 1517 Sister College Corpus Christi College President Sir Tim Lankester JCR President Binyamin Even Undergraduates 239 Graduates 126 Homepage Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see Classics (disambiguation). ... Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) is a popular interdisciplinary degree which combines study from the three eponymous disciplines. ... Alfred Jules Ayer (October 29, 1910 - June 27, 1989), better known as simply A. J. Ayer (and called Freddie by friends), was a British philosopher. ... Sir Stuart Newton Hampshire (October 1, 1914 - June 13, 2004) was an Oxford University philosopher, literary critic and university administrator. ... Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra (April 8, 1898 – July 4, 1971) was an English classical scholar, teacher, and wit. ... John Langshaw Austin (March 28, 1911 – February 8, 1960) was a British philosopher of language, born in Lancaster and educated at Balliol College, Oxford University. ... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ...

Berlin died in Oxford in 1997, aged 88.^[1] He is buried there in Wolvercote Cemetery. The grave of J. R. R. and Edith Tolkien Wolvercote Cemetery is in the north Oxford suburb of Wolvercote off the Banbury Road. ...

His work

Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... For other uses, see Politics (disambiguation). ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... Contributions to liberal theory is a partial list of individual contributions on a worldwide scale. ... Modern liberalism in the United States is a form of liberalism that began in the United States in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. ... Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism[1] and laissez-faire liberalism[2]) is a doctrine stressing the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, constitutional limitations of government, free markets, and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of Adam... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the political philosophy based on private property rights. ... For the school of international relations, see Neoliberalism in international relations. ... This article is about political philosophy of Ordoliberalism. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Social liberalism is either a synonym for new liberalism or a label used by progressive liberal parties in order to differentiate themselves from the more conservative liberal parties, especially when there are two or more liberal parties in a country. ... Cultural liberalism is a form of liberalism which stresses the freedom of the individual from what Lord Acton called the tyrany of the majority, the right of the non-conformist to march to a different drummer. ... For other uses, see Freedom. ... Individual rights represent the moral rights of individuals in society prior to government. ... Individualism is a term used to describe a moral, political, or social outlook that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. ... Laissez-faire is short for laissez faire, laissez passer, a French phrase meaning to let things alone, let them pass. First used by the eighteenth century Physiocrats as an injunction against government interference with trade, it is now used as a synonym for strict free market economics. ... Liberal democracy is a form of government. ... Liberal neutrality is the idea that the liberal state should not promote any particular conception of the good. This idea formed a cornerstone of John Rawls work and has been developed by many other liberal thinkers e. ... The philosophical concept of negative liberty refers to an individuals liberty from being subjected to the authority of others. ... Positive liberty refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill ones own potential, as opposed to negative liberty, which refers to freedom from restraint. ... For other uses, see Liberty (disambiguation). ... A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... A mixed economy is an economic system that incorporates aspects of more than one economic system. ... An open society is a concept originally developed by philosopher Henri Bergson. ... Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the state is created by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. ... For the direction right, see left and right or starboard. ... For other persons named John Locke, see John Locke (disambiguation). ... John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873), British philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. ... Friedrich von Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an economist and social scientist of the Austrian School, noted for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against a rising tide of socialist and collectivist thought in the mid... Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. ... John Rawls (February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American philosopher, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard University and author of A Theory of Justice (1971), Political Liberalism, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, and The Law of Peoples. ... This article discusses liberalism as a major political current in specific regions and countries. ... In the entry Liberalism one can find a comprehensive discussion on liberalism. ... This article discusses the history and development of various notions of liberalism in the United States. ... Liberal International is a political international for international liberal parties. ... The International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) is an international liberal youth organization. ... The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (founded in 1993) is a liberal party, mainly active in the European Union, composed of 49 national liberal and centrist parties from across Europe. ... ALDE logo The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (French: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour lEurope) is a Group in the European Parliament. ... European Liberal Youth (LYMEC - Liberal and Radical Youth Movement of the European Community) is an international organisation of Liberal youth movements - mostly the youth wings of members of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party. ... The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats is a regional organization of liberal and democratic political parties in Asia. ... The Africa Liberal Network is composed of 16 parties in Africa, from 14 different countries, and is an associated organisation of Liberal International, the political family to which Liberal Democratic parties belong. ... The Liberal Network for Latin America (Red Liberal de América Latina, RELIAL) is an international network founded in 2003 with the official launch taking place in Costa Rica November 2004. ...

"Two Concepts of Liberty"

Further information: Positive and negative rights

Berlin is best known for his essay "Two Concepts of Liberty", delivered in 1958 as his inaugural lecture as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford. He defined negative liberty as the absence of constraints on, or interference with, agents' possible action. Greater "negative freedom" meant fewer restrictions on possible action. Berlin associated positive liberty with the idea of self-mastery, or the capacity to determine oneself, to be in control of one's destiny. While Berlin granted that both concepts of liberty represent valid human ideals, as a matter of history the positive concept of liberty has proven particularly susceptible to political abuse. Within the philosophy of human rights, some philosophers and political scientists make a distinction between negative and positive rights. ... Two Concepts of Liberty was the inaugural lecture delivered by Isaiah Berlin before the University of Oxford on October 31, 1958. ... The philosophical concept of negative liberty refers to an individuals liberty from being subjected to the authority of others. ... Positive liberty refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill ones own potential, as opposed to negative liberty, which refers to freedom from restraint. ...

Berlin contended that under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel (all committed to the positive concept of liberty), European political thinkers often equated liberty with forms of political discipline or constraint. This became politically dangerous when notions of positive liberty were, in the nineteenth century, used to defend nationalism, self-determination and the Communist idea of collective rational control over human destiny. Berlin argued that, following this line of thought, demands for freedom paradoxically become demands for forms of collective control and discipline – those deemed necessary for the "self-mastery" or self-determination of nations, classes, democratic communities, and even humanity as a whole. There is thus an elective affinity, for Berlin, between positive liberty and political totalitarianism.^{[citation needed]} Rousseau redirects here. ... Kant redirects here. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Totalitarianism is a term employed by some political scientists, especially those in the field of comparative politics, to describe modern regimes in which the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. ...

Conversely, negative liberty represents a different, perhaps safer, understanding of the concept of liberty. Its proponents (such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill) insisted that constraint and discipline were the antithesis of liberty and so were (and are) less prone to confusing liberty and constraint in the manner of the philosophical harbingers of modern totalitarianism.^{[citation needed]} It is this concept of Negative Liberty that Isaiah Berlin was a proponent of. It dominated heavily his early chapters in his third lecture. Jeremy Bentham (IPA: ) (26 February [O.S. 15 February 15] 1748) – June 6, 1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. ... John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873), British philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. ...

This negative liberty is central to the claim for toleration due to incommensurability. This concept is mirrored in the work of Joseph Raz.

Other work

Berlin's essay "Historical Inevitability" (1954) focused on a controversy in the philosophy of history. In Berlin's words, the choice is whether one believes that "the lives of entire peoples and societies have been decisively influenced by exceptional individuals" or, rather, that whatever happens occurs as a result of impersonal forces oblivious to human intentions. Berlin is also well known for his writings on Russian intellectual history, most of which are collected in Russian Thinkers (1978; 2nd ed., 2008), edited, like most of Berlin's work, by Henry Hardy (in the case of this volume, jointly with Aileen Kelly). Philosophy of history or historiosophy is an area of philosophy concerning the eventual significance, if any, of human history. ... For other uses, see Society (disambiguation). ... Henry Hardy (1949- ) is a British editor. ...

Berlin's writings on the Enlightenment and its critics – for whom Berlin used the term "the Counter-Enlightenment" – and particularly Romanticism, contributed to his advocacy of an ethical theory now usually termed value pluralism.^[2] For Berlin, values are creations of mankind, rather than products of nature waiting to be discovered, though he also argued that the nature of mankind is such that certain values – for example, the importance of individual liberty – will hold true across cultures, which is part of what he meant when he called his position "objective pluralism". With his account of value pluralism, he proposed the view that moral values may be equally, or rather incommensurably, valid and yet incompatible, and may therefore come into conflict with one another in a way that admits of no resolution without reference to particular contexts of decision. When values clash, it may not be that one is more important than the other. Keeping a promise may conflict with the pursuit of truth; liberty may clash with social justice. Moral conflicts are "an intrinsic, irremovable element in human life". "These collisions of values are of the essence of what they are and what we are." ^[3] ... Romantics redirects here. ... Value-pluralism is the idea that two or more moral values may be equally ultimate (true), yet in conflict. ... Social justice refers to the concept of an unjust society that refers to more than just the administration of laws. ...

Bibliography

• More details of the books listed below

Major works:

All publications listed from 1978 onwards are compilations or transcripts of various lectures, essays, and letters, edited by Henry Hardy. Details given are of first and current UK editions. For US editions see link above.

• Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, Thornton Butterworth, 1939. 4th ed., 1978, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510326-2.
• The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1953. Phoenix. ISBN 978-075380-867-2.
• Four Essays on Liberty, Oxford University Press, 1969. Superseded by Liberty.
• Russian Thinkers (co-edited with Aileen Kelly), Hogarth Press, 1978. 2nd ed., Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-144220-4
• Concepts and Categories: Philosophical Essays, Hogarth Press, 1978. Pimlico. ISBN 0-670-23552-0.
• Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas, Hogarth Press, 1979. Pimlico. ISBN 0–7126–6690–7.
• Personal Impressions, Hogarth Press, 1980. 2nd ed., 1998, Pimlico. ISBN 0–7126–6601–X.
• The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas, John Murray, 1990. Pimlico. ISBN 0–7126–0616–5.
• The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and their History, Chatto & Windus, 1996. Pimlico. ISBN 0–7126–7367–9.
• The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays (co-edited with Roger Hausheer), Chatto & Windus, 1997. Pimlico. ISBN 0–7126–7322–9.
• The Roots of Romanticism (recorded 1965), Chatto & Windus, 1999. ISBN 0–7126–6544–7.
• Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder, Pimlico, 2000. ISBN 0–7126–6492–0.
• The Power of Ideas, Chatto & Windus, 2000. Pimlico. ISBN 0–7126–6554–4.
• Freedom and its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human Liberty (recorded 1952), Chatto & Windus, 2002. Pimlico. ISBN 0–7126–6842–0.
• Liberty (revised and expanded edition of Four Essays On Liberty), Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-924989-X.
• The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture under Communism, Brookings Institution Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8157-0904-8.
• Flourishing: Selected Letters 1928–1946, Chatto & Windus, 2004. ISBN 0-7011-7420-X. (Published as Selected Letters 1928–1946 by Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-521-83368-X.)
• Political Ideas in the Romantic Age: Their Rise and Influence on Modern Thought, Chatto & Windus, 2006. ISBN 0-701-17909-0. Princeton University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-691-12687-6.0. Pimlico, ISBN 978–1–844–13926–2.

• (with Beata Polanowska-Sygulska) Unfinished Dialogue, Prometheus, 2006. ISBN 978-1-59102-376-0/1-59102-376-9.

Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ... The Hedgehog and the Fox is the title of an essay by Isaiah Berlin, regarding the Russian author Leo Tolstoys theory of history. ... It has been suggested that Penguin Modern Poets, Penguin Great Ideas be merged into this article or section. ... John Murray is a British publishing house, renowned for the roster of authors it has published in its history, including Jane Austen, Lord Byron and Charles Darwin. ... Chatto and Windus has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House, the publishers. ... The headquarters of the Cambridge University Press, in Trumpington Street, Cambridge. ... The Princeton University Press is a publishing house, a division of Princeton University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. ... Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster that is primarily residential and well known for its collection of small hotels. ...

References

is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... is the 141st day of the year (142nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Isaiah Berlin

• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory
• The Hedgehog and the Fox
• Counter-Enlightenment
• The Trap (television documentary series)

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... Contributions to liberal theory is a partial list of individual contributions on a worldwide scale. ... The Hedgehog and the Fox is the title of an essay by Isaiah Berlin, regarding the Russian author Leo Tolstoys theory of history. ... Francisco de Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799) Counter-Enlightenment is a term used in the second half of the twentieth century to refer to a movement that arose in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries in opposition to the eighteenth century Enlightenment. ... The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom is a BBC documentary series by British filmmaker Adam Curtis, well known for other documentaries including The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares. ...

Further reading

• Isaiah Berlin and the history of ideas.
• The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library, Wolfson College, Oxford.
• A podcast interview with Henry Hardy on Berlin's Pluralism.
• A recording of the last of Berlin's Mellon Lectures, Wolfson College, Oxford.
• BBC obituary.
• Biographical information on Sir Isaiah Berlin
• Tribute from Chief Rabbi at his funeral.
• Anecdote from Wolfson College's tribute page.
• Entry on Berlin in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, including his "Master Idea".
• Letter to Berlin from Tony Blair, 23 October 1997.
• Obituary by Henry Hardy.
• John Gray. Isaiah Berlin, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-691-04824-X.
• Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1999. ISBN 0-8050-6300-5. Authorised biography.
• Charles Blattberg, From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics: Putting Practice First, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-829688-6. A critique of Berlin's value pluralism.
• George Crowder, Isaiah Berlin: Liberty and Pluralism, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004. ISBN 0-7456-2476-6.
• Joshua Cherniss, 'Isaiah Berlin: A Defence', The Oxonian Review of Books
• Claude Galipeau, Isaiah Berlin's Liberalism, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. ISBN 0-19-827868-3.
• Ned O'Gorman, 'My dinners with Isaiah: the music of a philosopher's life - Sir Isaiah Berlin' - includes related article on Isaiah Berlin's commitment to ideals of genuine understanding over intellectual mastery, Commonweal, 14 August 1998
• Conversations with Isaiah Berlin, Ramin Jahanbegloo (1992)