Isaiah Berlin’s Critique of Enlightenment

Abstract

Isaiah Berlin started his academic work as a philosopher in Oxford, and gained renown as a historian of ideas. He was clearly influenced in Oxford by Austin, Ayer, Hampshire, MacKinnon, and Macnabb, who instilled in him the English method of linguistic analysis derived from Hume, Mill, and Russell. Perhaps his article "Austin and the Early Beginnings of Oxford Philosophy" is the most prominent piece on this Oxford analytical movement.