Isaiah Berlin: A Life — 16: Liberal at Bay

1. 1. Berlin argued that until the Romantic era, the idea that values might conflict had not arisen in Western philosophy.
2. 2. Romanticism historicized human nature, leading to the view that each culture has its own center of gravity, undermining the idea of universal progress.
3. 3. Berlin argued that Romanticism introduced sincerity, authenticity, and toleration as new virtues, which became presuppositions of modern liberal individualism.
4. 4. Berlin believed that Romanticism transformed tragedy from a result of error to an unavoidable conflict of ultimate ends, making tragic loss inherent in politics.
5. 5. Berlin's own inner conflicts, including his sense of being caught between left and right, shaped his emphasis on the unavoidability of conflicting ends.
6. 6. Berlin traced the intellectual roots of Nazism to Romanticism, arguing that Romantic emphasis on distinct identity led to the tyranny of identity politics and the denial of common humanity.
7. 7. Berlin argued that both Nazi and Communist utopias rejected the indivisibility of the human species, treating enemies as subhuman or class enemies to be eliminated.
8. 8. Berlin was the only major liberal thinker to seriously engage with the intellectual worlds of liberalism's enemies, such as Romantic irrationalism and Fascist precursors.
9. 9. Berlin argued that the experience of the Holocaust and totalitarianism revived the ancient notion of natural law, sustained not by faith but by fear of mankind.
10. 10. Berlin saw the 1960s student revolts as an uprising against boredom and lack of existential challenge, not oppression, and he distrusted the revolutionary cult of violence.
11. 11. Berlin was outraged by Hannah Arendt's criticism of Jewish leaders for cooperating with Nazis, arguing that no moral judgment is possible from safety on those in extreme danger.
12. 12. Berlin identified with Turgenev as a liberal caught between left and right, defending empathy as the core liberal aptitude for understanding alien convictions without surrendering skepticism.