Episode Details

In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and mind of Sir Isaiah Berlin, the Russian-British social theorist hailed as "the world’s greatest talker" and one of the finest minds of the 20th century. We trace his journey from a childhood in Riga and Petrograd—where witnessing the violence of the Russian Revolution instilled in him a "permanent horror of violence"—to his rise as a central figure at Oxford University.

We unpack Berlin's most enduring contributions to political philosophy, including:

• Two Concepts of Liberty: We break down his famous 1958 distinction between "negative liberty" (freedom from coercion) and "positive liberty" (self-mastery), and his warning that positive liberty is often conflated with collective control to justify authoritarianism.
• The Hedgehog and the Fox: We discuss his popular categorization of thinkers into "hedgehogs," who view the world through a single defining idea (like Plato), and "foxes," who draw on a wide variety of experiences (like Aristotle).
• Value Pluralism: We examine Berlin's argument that human values are creations of mankind that frequently clash—such as liberty versus social justice—creating conflicts that are an "intrinsic, irremovable element in human life".

Join us as we discuss why this "Russian Jew from Riga" hated writing so much that he dictated his essays to a tape recorder, and how his defense of civil liberties remains vital today.