Freedom And Its Betrayal

by Isaiah Berlin

ISBN: 9780712668422

Published: 2003

'Freedom and its Betrayal is one of Isaiah Berlin's earliest and most convincing expositions of his views on human freedom and the history of ideas, views which later found expression in such famous works as 'Two Concepts of Liberty', and were at the heart of his lifelong work on the Enlightenment and its critics... "In his examination of sometimes complex ideas, Berlin demonstrates that a balanced understanding and a resilient defense of human liberty depend on learning both from the errors of freedom's alleged defenders and from the dark insights of its avowed antagonists. This book throws light on the early development of Berlin's most influential ideas, and supplements his already published writings with fuller treatments of Helvetius, Rousseau, Fichte, Hegel, and Saint-Simon, with the ultraconservative Maistre bringing up the rear." "These thinkers gave to freedom a new dimension of power - power that, Berlin argues, has historically brought about less, not more, individual...