Henry Hardy on Isaiah Berlin's Pluralism

Philosophy Bites

Nigel Warburton

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2007

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Is there a common currency in which we can compare the various ways in which people choose to live? Isaiah Berlin thought not. He argued that fundamental values may be incommensurable. In this episode of Philosophy Bites Henry Hardy in conversation with Nigel Warburton explains what Berlin meant by this. He also reveals in passing that Tony Blair once wrote to Berlin hoping to find an intellectual ally..

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is
0:03.4	philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warton.
0:06.8	Philosophy bites is available at
0:08.6	www philosophy bites. com
0:11.6	Some say it so Isaiah Berlin was knighted by the Queen for services to conversation.
0:17.0	There are numerous accounts of how beguiling he was as a companion,
0:21.0	witty, obein, gossipy, sharp, and with encyclopedic knowledge.
0:25.8	Essentially, he was an historian of ideas, but he also made several original contributions
0:30.8	to political theory. Henry Hardy can be described as Berlin's Boswell.
0:35.0	He's devoted much for his life to archiving Berlin's work.
0:39.0	Henry Hardy, welcome to Philosophy Bites.
0:41.0	Nice to be here.
0:42.0	The topic I want to focus on today is Welcome to Philosophy Bites. Nice to be here.
0:43.0	The topic I want to focus on today is Isaiah Berlin's pluralism.
0:47.0	But before we get into that, could you just say a little bit about who Isaiah Berlin was?
0:51.0	As Iberlin began life in Latvia and emigrated to England in 1921 and was educated here
1:01.0	in England and went to Oxford where he became a philosopher, but his most important
1:06.8	work was categorized by him as the history of ideas, something he started on his return
1:11.8	from war duty in America after the Second World War.
1:15.4	So he's in academic terms a historian of ideas, but he also has had a status as a public intellectual and moralist and as a general commentator
1:26.3	on the human condition and I think that it's in that role that he has broken through
1:30.6	into public consciousness probably.
	...

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