Isaiah Berlin and the Aesthetics of Liberalism Introduction
An Aesthetic Approach to Intellectual History? Isaiah Berlin and the Ethos of Liberalism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6442792 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joshua L Cherni (0000-0001-8399-6402, Georgetown University, corresponding author), Sarah Collins (0000-0001-5129-0691, The University of Western Australia) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 264-277 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Intellectual History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1479-2443 • E-ISSN: 1479-2451 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1479244324000325 |
| OpenAlex | W4404934544 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
As a collection of methods oriented toward the artefacts of human expression and the minds that shaped those expressions, intellectual history seems well placed to mobilize the category of the aesthetic, yet the aesthetic is rarely a focus on methodological discussions. The special forum that this article introduces explores what an “aesthetic approach” to intellectual history might look like. It focuses on the work of leading twentieth-century liberal Isaiah Berlin (1909–97), whose amorphous role in the history of intellectual history means that his work offers a parallax view on important questions of method and approach. In introducing this special forum, this article situates Isaiah Berlin’s distinctive approach and varied work as a historian of ideas and defender of liberalism within several larger contexts. One is Berlin’s response to tendencies in post-World War II British philosophy, and his turn to the history of ideas—an understanding of this area of study as requiring essentially aesthetic qualities of judgment, imagination, pattern recognition, and empathetic entry into the perspectives of others. A second is the development of other, more influential approaches to the history of ideas, to which Berlin’s approach is briefly contrasted. A third is the ideological struggles of the Cold War; in this last connection, we explore the affinities between Berlin’s awareness, and affirmation, of the aesthetic and the ethical in his articulation of liberalism
Aesthetics · Art · Articulation (sociology · Ethos · Expression (computer science · Ideology · Intellectual history · Liberalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · History · Law · Philosophy, History, and Historiography · Philosophy, Science, and History · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education
Isaiah Berlin’s Cold War Liberalism
Liberalism against Itself
A Mind and its Time
The Making of Modern Liberalism
The Political Thought of Isaiah Berlin
Political Political Theory
The significance of Isaiah Berlin’s Counter-Enlightenment
Isaiah Berlin
Fear and Freedom
Collingwood and Berlin
The Myth of the Counter-Enlightenment
A Berlin for Historians
The Free World
Motives, Intentions and the Interpretation of Texts
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |