Liberty

Liberty: Incorporating Four Essays on Liberty

Introduction:

This book is a revised and expanded edition of Isaiah Berlin's most important work, Four Essays on Liberty. It is hailed as the third landmark work in the history of British political thought, after Milton's Essays on the Freedom of the Press and Stuart Mill's Essays on Liberty. The ideas expressed in this book have established Berlin as one of the most important thinkers in the 20th century's revival of classical liberal values. Henry Hardy, Berlin's editor, explains the origins of this book, revises the text, verifies the sources of quotations, and includes Berlin's other writings on liberty, thus fully embodying Berlin's conception of liberty. Three appendices, drawn from Berlin's unpublished works, help us understand the core of his convictions. Ian Harris's literature review showcases the latest developments in Anglo-American practical thought centered on Berlin.
Introduction:

Berlin's work has played a uniquely important role in the flourishing of contemporary political philosophy. It has stimulated a sustained, vigorous, and often illuminating debate. Its wide-ranging scope, its profound historical sense, and its distinctly modern sensibility have made political thought suddenly exciting and engaging in the midst of contemporary scholarship.
—Ronald Dworkin

Central to liberalism was Berlin's lifelong conviction that equal citizens each have different and therefore incommensurable and irreconcilable conceptions of the good.
—John Rawls

This man tells us profound truths, truths that we often find difficult to hear due to partisanship or a narrow understanding of reason. He teaches us about the tragedy and complexity of morality, about the unhappiness that can result from conflicting hopes. But he also offers us another hope: if we can hold this complexity, this paradox, and reconcile the incommensurable moral goods in a compassionate understanding, we can all get along in this world.
—Charles Taylor

2011-03-01

译林出版社

401

9787544716741