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Isaiah Berlin and his Philosophical Contemporaries

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Johnny Lyons

    1. Dublin, Ireland

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  • Explores the nature and implications of Berlin’s understanding of pluralism in a dialectically original and illuminating way

  • Reveals the philosophically profound aspects of his undogmatic and humanistic liberal vision

  • Produces not only a deeper grasp of Berlin and several major twentieth-century thinkers, but, more broadly, a keener appreciation of the power of history and philosophy to help us make sense of our predicament

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Johnny Lyons
    Pages 1-26

  3. Berlin and A. J. Ayer on Morality

    • Johnny Lyons
    Pages 27-67

  4. Berlin and J. L. Austin on Philosophy

    • Johnny Lyons
    Pages 69-123

  5. Berlin and P. F. Strawson on Freedom

    • Johnny Lyons
    Pages 125-171

  6. Berlin and Quentin Skinner on History

    • Johnny Lyons
    Pages 173-213

  7. Berlin and Bernard Williams on Liberalism

    • Johnny Lyons
    Pages 215-261

  8. Conclusion

    • Johnny Lyons
    Pages 263-288

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 289-299
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Keywords

About this book

This book sets out to identify the nature and implications of a proper understanding of pluralism in a original and illuminating way. Isaiah Berlin believed that a recognition of pluralism is vital to a free, decent and civilised society. By looking below at the often neglected foundations of Berlin’s celebrated account of moral pluralism, Lyons reveals the more philosophically profound aspects of his undogmatic and humanistic liberal vision. He achieves this by comparing Berlin’s core ideas with those of several of his most distinguished philosophical contemporaries, an exercise which yields not only a deeper grasp of Berlin and several major twentieth-century thinkers, principally A. J. Ayer, J. L. Austin, P. F. Strawson, Bernard Williams and Quentin Skinner, but, more broadly, a keener appreciation of the power of history and philosophy to help us make sense of our predicament.

Reviews

“Anyone who reads Johnny Lyons on Isaiah Berlin and his philosophical contemporaries will quickly realise that [he] is a true philosopher through and through. He lives and breathes philosophy, and it keeps him awake at night, just as it didn’t keep Isaiah Berlin awake at night, which is one of the reasons he used to give for allegedly switching from philosophy to the history of ideas. [Lyons] is also terrifyingly well read: where does he find the time, especially given his full-time unphilosophical job? And what he writes is continuously dense, serious, subtle, sophisticated and nuanced.” (Henry Hardy, Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, Isaiah Berlin's editor and author of In Search of Isaiah Berlin (2018))

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dublin, Ireland

    Johnny Lyons

About the author

Johnny Lyons taught Political Theory at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, before joining the commercial world, where he works in change management. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The Philosophy of Isaiah Berlin (2020) and a contributor to the Dublin Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and Aeon.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Isaiah Berlin and his Philosophical Contemporaries

  • Authors: Johnny Lyons

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73178-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-73177-9Published: 21 July 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-73180-9Published: 22 July 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-73178-6Published: 20 July 2021

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIX, 299

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Analytic Philosophy, History of Philosophy

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