Concepts and Categories: Philosophical Essays - Second Edition

✍ Scribed by Isaiah Berlin (editor); Henry Hardy (editor); Bernard Williams (editor); Alasdair MacIntyre (editor)

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 384
• Edition: Second edition with a New Foreword
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"The goal of philosophy is always the same, to assist men to understand themselves and thus to operate in the open, not wildly in the dark."--Isaiah Berlin

This volume of Isaiah Berlin's essays presents the sweep of his contributions to philosophy from his early participation in the debates surrounding logical positivism to his later work, which more evidently reflects his life-long interest in political theory, the history of ideas, and the philosophy of history. Here Berlin describes his view of the nature of philosophy, and of its main task: to uncover the various models and presuppositions--the concepts and categories--that men bring to their existence and that help form that existence. Throughout, his writing is informed by his intense consciousness of the plurality of values, the nature of historical understanding, and of the fragility of human freedom in the face of rigid dogma.

This new edition adds a number of previously uncollected pieces that throw further light on Berlin's central philosophical concerns, and a revealing exchange of letters with the editor and Bernard Williams about the genesis of the book.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Foreword
Editor’s Preface
Author’s Preface
Introduction
The Purpose of Philosophy
Verification
Empirical Propositions and Hypothetical Statements
Logical Translation
Equality
The Concept of Scientific History
Does Political Theory Still Exist?
From Hope and Fear Set Free
Appendix to the Second Edition
Made of Wax after All
My Philosophical Views
Interview on Concepts and Categories
Logical Positivism
The Rationality of Value Judgements
Is a Philosophy of History Possible?
Pluralism and Liberalism (with Bernard Williams)
The Philosophy of Charles Taylor
Index