The Liberalism Plight In The Vision Of The Pluralism

Freedom is one of the mankind's ultimate value ,it is the central topic of discussion in the political philosophy. The distinction between the negative liberty and the positive liberty ,which Berlin regarded as a conceptual tool to understand two opponent political ideas ,is the base on the discussion of liberty of post-war western political philosophy.This constitutes main content of Berlin's liberal thought. The paper thinks that there is a clear difference between negative liberty and positive liberty ,they are two different concepts. Although the concept of the negative liberty faces a real risk of ignoring essential human liberties,the emphasis on conditions for free not only can avoid the risk but also can distinguish the value of freedom from other human values.The demonstration that the positive liberty falls through totalitarianism is perspicuity, but there isn't the logical validity.The collision between monism and pluralism is the core of Berlin's thought. Because of the value-pluralism, Berlin defended the negative liberty. But the value-pluralism as the monism also faces the moral and political risks and it can defend for totalitarianism.The paper thinks that in order to safeguard our freedom ,we need a kind of the postive liberty—a open self-regulation.There is internal tension between Berlin's liberalism and his value-pluralism which undermine the moral basis of liberalism . The value-pluralism underlines cultural diversity and shaping effect of a specific language, heritage of historical practice to the individual, which produces a certain kind of ideological resonance with the communalism.The combination of liberlism and the value-pluralism shows a high degree of originality of Berlin's liberal thought.