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Product Description
Few would dispute that Isaiah Berlin is Britain's greatest living thinker, yet Berlin's contributions to thought--in particular to moral and political philosophy, and to liberal theory--are little understood, and surprisingly neglected by the academic world. In this book, they are shown to be animated by a single, powerful, subversive idea: value-pluralism. It is this new statement of liberalism, the central subject of John Gray's lively and lucid book, which gives the liberal intellectual tradition a new lease on life and comprises Berlin's central and enduring legacy".Gray's book is as much a reconstruction as a presentation of Berlin's thought.... Gray's reconstruction is ... impressive and revealing. It points persuasively to both the overall coherence and the internal tensions of Berlin's thought.... Gray has written an acute and illuminating exposition of Berlin's world view.... He probably gets closer to Berlin than anyone else has done".--Michael Walzer, The New York Review of Books"Succeed[s] in bringing the daring of [Berlin's] thinking so clearly into view.... Berlin's commitment to liberalism for all its difficulties remains solid, and Mr. Gray's argument is that this 'agonistic' liberalism is our best bet.... It is an argument not to be missed".--Colin Walters, The Washington Times"An excellent exposition of Isaiah Berlin's ideas. [Gray] is particularly interesting in his account of Berlin's idea of negative freedom".--William Phillips, Partisan Review
Amazon.com Review
For more than half a century, the renowned liberal thinker Sir Isaiah Berlin has occupied an important spot at the center of British intellectual and public life. Recipient of knighthood and the Order of Merit, he has been the head of an Oxford College and the director of the Royal Opera House. During World War II, he acted as Winston Churchill's eyes and ears in America. He is also a talented and prolific writer with five volumes of essays to his name. Surprisingly, John Gray's book is only the third full-length examination of one of this century's seminal thinkers.
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