The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History

Front Cover
Macmillan, Dec 26, 1998 - Fiction - 278 pages

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Isaiah Berlin's The Sense of Reality contains an important body of previously unknown work by one of our century's leading historians of ideas, and one of the finest essayists writing in English. Eight of the nine pieces included here are published for the first time, and their range is characteristically wide: the subjects explored include realism in history; judgement in politics; the history of socialism; the nature and impact of Marxism; the radical cultural revolution instigated by the Romantics; Russian notions of artistic commitment; and the origins and practice of nationalism. The title essay, starting from the impossibility of historians being able to recreate a bygone epoch, is a superb centerpiece.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Political Judgement
40
Philosophy and Government Repression
54
Socialism and Socialist Theories
77
Marxism and the International in
116
A Crisis in
168
A Russian Legacy
194
Kant as an Unfamiliar Source of Nationalism
232
Rabindranath Tagore and the Consciousness
249
Copyright

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The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History
Isaiah Berlin
Limited preview - 1997
The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History
Isaiah Berlin
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Isaiah Berlin
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Common terms and phrases

action answer artist behaviour believe Belinsky Belinsky's Berlin Blanquists bourgeoisie capitalist communist concepts conflict conscious created creative culture democratic despite doctrine economic Engels facts feeling Fichte forces freedom genius George Sand German goals Hegel Henry Hardy historians human ideal ideas individual industrial inevitable intellectual interests International Isaiah Berlin John of Leiden Kant Karl Marx kind knowledge labour laws Lenin liberal lives mankind Marx Marx's Marxist methods moral movement nature nineteenth century organisation outlook Paris Commune particular party perhaps philosophical Plekhanov political principle problems proletariat Proudhon questions radical realise reality reason revolution revolutionary romantic Rosa Luxemburg Russian Saint-Simon Saint-Simonian scientific seems sense situation social socialist society spirit Stone Guest syndicalist Tagore theory thinkers thought tion Tolstoy tradition transformed true truth Turgenev understand unique universal Utopian values violent vision workers writer

References to this book

About the author (1998)

Sir Isaiah Berlin was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1909 and immigrated to England in 1921. Berlin's achievement as a historian and exponent of ideas earned him the Erasmus, Lippincott, and Agnelli Prizes. He also received the Jerusalem Prize for his lifelong defense of civil liberties. A Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, he was the author of ten other books. Sir Isaiah died in Oxford in November 1997. Henry Hardy edited The Proper Study of Mankind from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Henry Hardy edited The Sense of Reality from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History
AuthorIsaiah Berlin
EditorHenry Hardy
Editionreprint
PublisherMacmillan, 1998
ISBN0374525692, 9780374525699
Length278 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Fiction / Psychological
History / Essays
Philosophy / Essays
Philosophy / History & Surveys / General
  
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