Unfinished Dialogue - Hardcover

Sir Isaiah Berlin; Beata Polanowska-Sygulska

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591023769 ISBN 13: 9781591023760

Publisher: Prometheus, 2006

Synopsis

This volume is the fruit of nearly fifteen years of discussion-in person and by letter-between world-famous British philosopher Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) and Dr. Beata Polanowska-Sygulska of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. Berlin always felt a special affinity for scholars from Eastern Europe, and the unique chemistry between him and this younger enthusiast for his ideas yielded a remarkable body of material, most of it hitherto unpublished.Divided into four sections, the book begins with a selection from the correspondence between Berlin and Polanowska-Sygulska dating from 1983 to 1997. These letters are published here in their entirety for the first time. The second section comprises two interviews Berlin gave in 1991 for Polish periodicals. Next come edited transcripts of a number of recorded conversations that took place between 1986 and 1995. In one conversation, Berlin tellingly recalls his childhood and youth. In other exchanges, the famous conversationalist is pressed to be more precise about some of his most contested views, particularly his concepts of liberty and value pluralism, and to give his response to criticism of these ideas by a wide range of authors. In one of his last letters to Dr. Polanowska-Sygulska, Berlin stated, "I have never expressed myself so clearly before, I believe."The book concludes with a collection of articles on Berlin's thought by Dr. Polanowska-Sygulska, stemming from her long-standing immersion in his work. Berlin himself thoroughly discussed three of these with the author and approved their publication.Complete with a foreword by Henry Hardy, Berlin's editor and collaborator of thirty years, and now one of his literary trustees, this fascinating collection of letters, conversations, and articles sheds considerable light on Berlin's thinking, clarifying some of the central themes of his philosophy.

About this title

About the Author:

Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) spent a long, distinguished career at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Social and Political Theory, a Fellow of All Souls College, and founding President of Wolfson College. Among his many books are Karl Marx, Russian Thinkers (including "The Hedgehog and the Fox"), The Age of Enlightenment, and Liberty (including "Historical Inevitability" and "Two Concepts of Liberty"). 

Beata Polanowska-Sygulska, Ph.D. (Cracow, Poland), works in the Department of Theory and Philosophy of Law at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland, and is the author of two books in Polish on Isaiah Berlin, Isaiah Berlin’s Philosophy of Freedom and Visages of Liberalism, as well as many scholarly articles.

From Publishers Weekly:

In 1983, Polanowska-Sygulska was struggling with her doctoral thesis on "controversies about the concept of liberty" when she got every grad student's dream opportunity: the chance to interrogate the subject of her research, philosopher Berlin. From then until his death in 1997, they corresponded through long letters as well as personal meetings, and Polanowska-Sygulska's record of these reveals both a young woman awed by the privilege of such tutoring and the kindness of the elderly Berlin, who was gratified by her interest and also stimulated by her questions, which forced him to re-examine his philosophical arguments. Polanowska-Sygulska wrote numerous articles based on these interactions, and some of them are reproduced here along with the letters and recorded conversations, which are helpfully edited to better reveal their themes, since Berlin often digressed from the topics his protégé wanted to discuss. Even the digressions make for interesting reading, since Berlin was learned but also engaged in the world (the decline and fall of the Soviet Union is a frequent concern), and his responses to then-current events illuminate his ideas. However, only readers who are already familiar with Berlin's ideas and with the course philosophy has taken in the last 200 years will get much out of the book; they will appreciate this portrayal of a generous and brilliant man, but casual readers will first have to read Berlin's writings to understand what Polanowska-Sygulska's conversations add to the picture.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1591023769
• ISBN 13: 9781591023760
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 317