Value Pluralism

This dissertation aims to explore the famous British thinker Isaiah Berlin's pluralism.Political philosophy for human catastrophes of the 20th century had an impact difficult to estimate.The ultimate goal of political philosophy is to help people live a good and decent life,practice their own ideals.All Political philosophers except Berlin believe that the value conflict of social reality are caused by the deficiencies and defects of human society.It is a symbol that human society has not yet reached the ideal state.Berlin exceed their predecessors in that he put the value conflict at the center of political philosophy,and use it as the starting point of political philosophy.How do we understand the value of conflict is not only related to how we deal with all kinds of differences and opposition,but also to build political principles;it also affects how we respond to the challenges and dilemmas of the political sphere.The brutal reality of human history confirms Isaiah Berlin's fundamental position.Human life goals are diverse.The values are always incompatible and incommensurable.Not only can not we escape it,but also can not use a simple way to eliminate it.We have to face and accept it with a conscientious attitude and use appropriate strategies to deal with it.This dissertation focuses on the "value conflicts" which is the theme of Berlin's pluralism to expand the following steps.The first chapter discusses Berlin's theory opponents whose thought is criticized.There are fundamental differences between modern society and traditional one.Before the Enlightenment.the Western Christian era regards the faith as the thought core,but after the Enlightenment,the natural sciences as the representative of rational thinking becomes the core ideology.The reason which the Enlightenment advocates subverts the idea of the traditional European millennium.Beyond the scope of natural science,reason gradually forms monism dogma.Berlin analyzes monism profoundly and points out its simplification,generalization.methods and harmonization.Historical determinism is an important theory when the reason is beyond natural sciences field to enter the political one to form it.Historical determinism believes in that human development has always been advancing with reason promoting and human history is determined by the general rules.Berlin unequivocally opposes and criticizes this theory of history because it completely denies human responsibility and freedom.The symbol that monism and historical determinism come into the social and political practice field is the emergence of utopian design.Enlightenment thinkers' original intention of designing utopian is to eliminate the suffering of human society,but to achieve this dream brings untold suffering.The second chapter describes the conflicts of values and the keynote of Berlin's pluralism.Mining and criticizing the ideological core of the Enlightenment is the starting point for Berlin to promote pluralism.Enlightenment emphasizes the unity of humanity,this awareness seems simplistic and optimistic for Berlin.Berlin interprets the thought of Maistre,Vico.Herder.Hamann and other anti-Enlightenment thinkers,considers that these theories is the source of pluralism.Prior to Berlin.Romanticism was viewed mainly as an literary trend,but Berlin believes that Romanticism from Hamann and Herder to Kant and Schiller is the biggest change that transform the Western world thought and is the first Shout of pluralism.Berlin's pluralism reflects on values and goals.Compared with monism,pluralism emphasize the value of diversity,uniqueness and possibility.The values that human pursuit are diverse and conflicting and these values itself are no difference between good or bad.The different values which are equal status and reasonable are always in conflict resulting in the situation of human reality will inevitably have eternal tragic.The third chapter analyzes the relationship between Berlin distinguishing two concepts of liberty and pluralism.Berlin separates positive liberty from negative liberty and bring about lots of commentaries,but these commentaries miss Berlin's fundamental purpose of studying liberty.When it goes beyond itself into the community,it w ill insist everyone be consistent and cause the oppression of the freedom of others.Berlin considers that negative liberty is the most important meaning of freedom.Human have to face the real world which is tragic and full of the conflicts of all different values.Human face all kinds of choice inevitably,so to protect the right to choose can only be negative liberty.The fourth chapter studies the relationship between Berlin's pluralism and Zionism thought.Nationalism has its basic meaning and manifestations and there are essential differences between national consciousness and nationalism.Berlin analysis and summarizes the four characteristics of nationalism:attribution,organic,persistent and violent.Berlin believes the key that promote nationalism is the national feelings which are wounded and the national identity.Nationalism manifests itself in two types:identifiable nationalism and aggressive one.As a Jewish intellectual.Berlin confirms the value and status of Jewish culture and supports Zionist from pluralism standpoint.He adheres to that only Jews in their homes can obtain the purest freedom.The fifth chapter mainly discusses the essential difference between pluralism and relativism.Strauss.Sandel and others question Berlin,because they believe that pluralism is essentially a kind of relativism.They are under the impression that pluralism have self-denial and subjective issues,just like relativism.But historicism and empiricism give Berlin the possibility to break away relativism.Although Berlin consents that relativism can fight dogmatism,it builds on the basis of the misunderstanding of experience.Values incommensurability are not equivalent to the analogy between the values and Humans can understand the choice between different values with sympathy.Berlin critics Procrustean doctrine which disregards for individual differences or special circumstances,and opposes the human sacrifice for the abstract principles.He suspects paternalism and unequivocally confronts totalitarianism.He believes that human is inseparable from the history,culture and values of human to exist in the different groups are diverse.Mature people both desire for freedom and belonging.Berlin recognizes the diversity of values,but also admits that people have the common characteristics.These common characteristics guarantee a common universal human values minimally,which is the key that pluralism is different from relativism.