SOURCE: “Isaiah Berlin as Anti-Rationalist,” in Philosophy and Literature, Vol. 21, No. 2, October, 1997, pp. 126-32.

In the following essay, Upton examines John Gray's challenges to Berlin's liberalism.

For over half a century Sir Isaiah Berlin has been a towering figure in the literature of political philosophy and the history of ideas. He has repeatedly distilled the essence of key subjects of political discourse. Through his exploration of intellectual currents that run, frequently, beyond the insularity of the English speaking world, he has provided new insights into debates that go to the heart of how Western civilization understands the relationship between its citizens and its institutions. For readers of this journal, his identification of the cultural roots of political and social identity will be familiar.

Yet he stands somehow to one side of the debates that have consumed academia for over half of the twentieth century. I went through the...