Name:
Isaiah Berlin
Dates:
Born: 1909 in Riga
Died: November 5, 1997 in Oxford, England (heart attack)
Biography:
Isaiah Berlin, a diplomat and political philosopher, developed the
idea that there are two kinds of freedom: positive freedom and negative freedom.
Positive freedom is characterized by being free to do things. Negative
freedom, on the other hand, is characterized by being free from the
interference of others, whether other people or the government.
According to Berlin, social structures will depend greatly upon just how a society defines freedom and what sort of emphasis is given to positive or negative freedom.
Berlin also argued very strongly against Marxist notions of a deterministic history. Berlin did not believe that there were objective forces pushing history towards some inevitable conclusion and made the point that it was necessary to reject determinism in order to preserve the principles of human freedom and moral responsibility.
Isaiah Berlin