Exploration On Isaiah Berlin's Two Concepts Of Liberty

Liberty, firstly advocated by liberalism, runs through the internal evolution of political philosophy of liberalism. The distinction between negative and positive liberty is the great contribution Isaiah Berlin made to political philosophy, providing significant theoretical perspective for studies on the relationship of modern politics and individual liberty。Isaiah Berlin's pluralistic idea of liberty represents his historical exploration of political concepts and therefore exerts great influence on the development of western political theory especially political philosophy of liberalism. The thesis hence targets Isaiah Berlin's idea of liberty and provides profound discussion of the relationship of liberty and the practice of liberty, with the argument based on Maxism's idea of liberty. Part 1 explains the fundamental of Isaiah Berlin's idea of liberty and discusses Berlin's rethought and attacks on western political theory. The theory of liberty in rights originates in liberal philosophy of British empiricism, represented by Locke. Such theory puts emphasis on the priority of individual rights, the protection of the political freedom of individual and opposition against the intervention of government. Rational self-direction theory, as a metaphysical theory, stresses that the power of self-determination is decisive. Kant, integrating the two theories, reconstructs the liberal theory of rights with rationalism and makes rationalism as the philosophical cornerstone of theory of state. The two theories of liberty affirm the role of state both theoretically and practically, and represents rationalism as well. Isaiah Berlin, boldly rejecting the premise of liberalism, believes the logic of rationalism violates the spirit of liberty. Liberty is the negation of coercing. Isaiah Berlin, own to Constant's theory of liberty, explains the concept of liberty and clarifies it by distinguishing between negative and positive liberty. Negative liberty is of non-intervention to some extent, while positive liberty means the subject (either individual or a group) has the right to do what he desires to do or to be. Negative liberty focuses on the non-intervention and non-control by outside force, while positive liberty emphasizes the self-initiative and self-control. Negative liberty refers to 'chances', while positive liberty refers to 'capacity and resources'. Part 2 combs thoughts of liberty focusing value-pluralism, and presents the meaning and theoretical value of Berlin's idea of liberty. Value-pluralism is the theoretical cornerstone of both negative and positive liberty. Berlin's idea of liberty is the significant component of his philosophy of pluralism against rational monism. And his attacks on rationalistic monism are the core of his value-pluralism. Isaiah Berlin believes that negative liberty is more real in accordance with the ideal claim of humanism. Isaiah Berlin views positive liberty and rationalistic monism are logically connected. As long as the proposition of monism is also the intrinsic value of positive liberty, the concept of positive liberty faces the risk of being used abusively. Isaiah Berlin, confronting rationalistic monism with value-pluralism, is in defense of negative liberty and predicts the inner danger of positive liberty. Isaiah Berlin's idea of value-pluralistic liberty represents the ideal of tolerance in modern liberty. Part 3 discusses the academic feedbacks and critics on Isaiah Berlin's two concepts of liberty and analyzes the influence and inspiration of his theory. Berlin's two concepts of liberty, showing provoking academic thoughts and extremely-strong political inclination, is heatedly debated by the academic circle of modern political philosophy on the issue of liberty. The critics on Berlin's theory by well-known philosophers as John Rawls, Charles Taylor, MacCallum, Feinberg are explored here in this thesis to show the inspiration of Isaiah Berlin's theory as well as his influence on political theory in the west, especially the political philosophy of liberalism. Part 4 presents the author's critics on Berlin's two concepts of liberty based on Maxism's idea of liberty, after affirming the positive significance of Berlin's theory. Examining further into the relationship of liberty and the practice of liberty, the author argues that the issue of liberty can never be explored satisfyingly with the absence of its practice. Berlin's idea of liberty represents the political concept of liberalism, starting with abstract humanism, giving priority to individual rights and shining spark of individualism. However Maxism's idea of liberty, based on the practice of liberty, is a revolutionary theory representing the fundamental interests of the mass of...