Isaiah Berlin : A Kantian and Post-Idealist Thinker

University of Wales Press

Isaiah BerlinA Kantian and Post-Idealist Thinker\nAuthor(s): Robert A. Kocis\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Wales Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: University of Wales Press\nISBN-13: 9781786838957, 978-1786838957\nSynopsis\nReacting against both the British Idealists and the logical positivists, Isaiah Berlin forged a new philosophy best described as post-Idealist. This philosophy was deeply informed by Kantian categories and methods, and conditioned by Vichian themes of historical and cultural variation. An advocate of pluralism without relativism, Berlin believed that it was possible to adopt and live by values, but he could not achieve moral certainty that our values are objectively preferable to all others. Like Collingwood and Oakeshott (and some neo-Kantians), Berlin believed that concepts matter and that they have a history; that human values are numerous and incommensurable; that rationalism in politics is dangerous; and that positivists hopes for rigorous social .