[.ca] The Power of Ideas (ISBN 0691092761)

NOT THE BEST WORK OF BERLIN.:
First, let me say that this is a selection of Berlin editorials, arranged by Henry Hardy. The title is a quotation from Heine, who warned the French not to undervalue the power of ideas, since philosophical concepts nurtured in the peace of a library can destroy a civilization. Under this auspices, it seemed a very interesting theme: how the history of ideas has reflected upon, challenged and ultimately changed reality. The unseen code of reality. But the outcome is not par to the expectations. Well, Berlin is a first class philosopher and always highly entertaining. But the arrangement made here is at least a little haphazard: an attempt of intellectual autobiography (written in old age), editorials about history of philosophy, about the Russian late '800 intellectual environment, about socialism and Marxism, some incomplete considerations about freedom, editorials about Zionism and the birth of the State of Israel..... Too much indeed and too many themes. The best parts are the one dedicated to history of philosophy, since Berlin is one of those rare writers who is able to cast an entirely new light on the arguments he decides to investigate: the appraisal of Enlightenment is excellent (especially as Age of Mechanics opposed to the Age of Mathematics in the XVII Century), as well the essay about the purposes of Philosophy and one on the essence of European Romanticism (on this argument the best book is still his "The Roots of Romanticism", I warmly recommend). But, these are pearls scattered here and there with no apparent order. Better would have been to focus it much more on a restricted number of arguments. I'm a curious and voracious reader. If you have suggestion for further readings, better still... you don't agree with what I write, or just want to say hallo... feel free to write.

marginal notes, ideas & quotes:
My Intellectual Path : empiricism, verificationism, phenomenalism, Rousseau thought that only the innocent human soul, the uncorrupted child, the simple peasant would know the truth - better than the corrupt inhabitants of societies ruined by civilization. Herder vs. French enlight. (diff. Cultures, different answers). Positive and negative freedom (liberty), determinism, "paradoxical that some political movements (Marxism) demand sacrifices and yet are determinist in belief. Impossibility of the "perfect world" due to incompatibilities between freedom and equality. The Purpose of Philosophy, The Philosophers of the enlightement, between empiric and formal. Locke compares ideas to atoms interacting in order to find rules similar to natural sciences. Giambattista Vico, one can understand fully, only what one had oneself created (God, mathematics as human creation). One of Vico's most brilliant formulations is of what he calls "the second barbarism" - the condition into which a society falls when mounting luxury, materilalism, egoism have destroyed the social bonds to which he thinks religious authority indispensable. Yeats, Joyce (Finnegan's wake is full of Vichian echoes and allusions) recognized his genius. Russian Intellectual History (not creators but great followers), Vissarion Belinsky, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen The Philosophy of Marx : "dialectical materialism" as a term was invented by the Russian socialist Georgy Plekhanov. Like the leading French materialist radicals of the 18th century, Marx believed, in the first place, that man was an object in nature, a three dimensional lump of flesh, Blood and bone to whom the laws of nature applies no less fully than to other material objects. Like these materialists, he denied the existence of an immaterial soul, of spiritual substances of any type and therefore of God. For Marx, men differed from objects in nature principally because they were able to invent tools. These inventions then altered man's relation to external nature and transformed him and his societies. Like the rationalist philosophers of the 17th and 18th century, Marx believed that human liberty consists in the systematic mastery of whatever resists human needs, wheter in external nature or in his own wild and self-destructive passions. Freedom is planned control of available resources, the more rational the method of control, the ampler the resources, the larger the number of persons exercising such control - the greater the freedom. Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov founder of organized socialism in Russia. The Origins of Israel Theodor Herzl first thought of causing all the Jews to be baptized. Factors : Hebrew language and war. Israel shows the power of ideas and not merely of economic and social pressure, upsetting materialist theories. Jewish slavery and emancipation "the travelers in a tribe" image, their willingness to integrate, their efforts, sacrifices, excelnet knowledge of the tribe itself is exactly what makes them different. Koestler : "stay and assimilate or go to Israel.