A Study On Isaiah Berlin’s Counter-Enlightenment

In this paper, the author will try to explore Isaiah Berlin’s real attitude to the Enlightenment by means of elaborating the basic concept of and the academic debate about the Counter-Enlightenment of Isaiah Berlin. And then we can have a better command of the relationships between the Enlightenment and the Counter-Enlightenment. Isaiah Berlin developed his theory of the Counter-Enlightenment which based on the thought of the pioneers of Counter-Enlightenment in the 18th century, such as Vico, Hamann and Herder. Berlin’s theory of Counter-Enlightenment mainly consists of The Negation of Historical Inevitability, Value-Pluralism and The Notion of Belonging, which profoundly criticized the standpoint of Monism and Universalism derived from the Enlightenment. Accompanied by the appearance of Berlin’s points of view, However, a few skeptical voices could be heard in the academic circles. Leo Strauss pointed out that Berlin’s value-Pluralism is actually a kind of Relativism. And Robert E. Norton considered the Counter-Enlightenment put forward by Berlin as a myth created on purpose, which had never taken place in history. In addition, there are many other scholars such as Frederick Beiser and Arthur Scouten had put forward their own views on this topic. The doubts and arguments against Isaiah Berlin make his viewpoint about the Enlightenment more legible. Berlin actually still hold the fundamental value of the Enlightenment and what he had done is to improve the Enlightenment further by the way of criticizing itself. In this paper, to a certain extent, the author has provided some new thoughts and opinions for domestic academic research about the Counter-Enlightenment of Isaiah Berlin. Furthermore, this paper is beneficial for us to dialogue with Berlin’s opinions and to have a better understanding of the contemporary significance of the Counter-Enlightenment.