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Isaiah Berlin on PluralismIsaiah Berlin on pluralismThis is a section from the last essay written by Isaiah Berlin,published in the New York Review ofBooks, Vol. XLV, Number 8 (1998).Copyright: The Isaiah Berlin Literary Trust and Henry Hardy 1998. For moreinformation about Isaiah Berlin, seehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/berlin/vl/. For permission to reprint anymaterial by Isaiah Berlin, contact Camilla Hornby at Curtis Brown Group Ltd:camilla@curtisbrown.co.uk.I came to the conclusion that there is a plurality of ideals, as there is aplurality of cultures and of temperaments. I am not a relativist; I do notsay "I like my coffee with milk and you like it without; I am in favor ofkindness and you prefer concentration camps" -- each of us with his ownvalues, which cannot be overcome or integrated. This I believe to be false.But I do believe that there is a plurality of values which men can and do seek,and that these values differ. There is not an infinity of them: the number ofhuman values, of values that I can pursue while maintaining my humansemblance, my human character, is finite -- let us say 74, or perhaps 122,or 26, but finite, whatever it may be. And the difference it makes is that ifa man pursues one of these values, I, who do not, am able to understand whyhe pursues it or what it would be like, in his circumstances, for me to beinduced to pursue it. Hence the possibility of human understanding.I think these values are objective -- that is to say, their nature, thepursuit of them, is part of what it is to be a human being, and this is anobjective given. The fact that men are men and women are women and not dogsor cats or tables or chairs is an objective fact; and part of this objectivefact is that there are certain values, and only those values, which men,while remaining men, can pursue. If I am a man or a woman with sufficientimagination (and this I do need), I can enter into a value system which is notmy own, but which is nevertheless something I can conceive of men pursuingwhile remaining human, while remaining creatures with whom I can communicate,with whom I have some common values -- for all human beings must have somecommon values or they cease to be human, and also some different values elsethey cease to differ, as in fact they do.That is why pluralism is not relativism -- the multiple values are objective,part of the essence of humanity rather than arbitrary creations of men'ssubjective fancies. Nevertheless, of course, if I pursue one set of valuesI may detest another, and may think it is damaging to the only form of lifethat I am able to live or tolerate, for myself and others; in which case Imay attack it, I may even -- in extreme cases -- have to go to war against it.But I still recognize it as a human pursuit. I find Nazi values detestable,but I can understand how, given enough misinformation, enough false beliefabout reality, one could come to believe that they are the only salvation.Of course they have to be fought, by war if need be, but I do not regard theNazis, as some people do, as literally pathological or insane, only aswickedly wrong, totally misguided about the facts, for example in believingthat some beings are subhuman, or that race is central, or that Nordic racesalone are truly creative, and so forth. I see how, with enough falseeducation, enough widespread illusion and error, men can, while remainingmen, believe this and commit the most unspeakable crimes.If pluralism is a valid view, and respect between systems of values whichare not necessarily hostile to each other is possible, then toleration andliberal consequences follow, as they do not either from monism (only one setof values is true, all the others are false) or from relativism (my values aremine, yours are yours, and if we clash, too bad, neither of us can claim tobe right). My political pluralism is a product of reading Vico and Herder,and of understanding the roots of Romanticism, which in its violent,pathological form went too far for human toleration.So with nationalism: the sense of belonging to a nation seems to me quitenatural and not in itself to be condemned, or even criticized. But in itsinflamed condition -- my nation is better than yours, I know how the worldshould be shaped and you must yield because you do not, because you areinferior to me, because my nation is top and yours is far, far below mineand must offer itself as material to mine, which is the only nation entitledto create the best possible world -- it is a form of pathological extremismwhich can lead, and has led, to unimaginable horrors, and is totallyincompatible with the kind of pluralism that I have attempted to describe.It may be of interest to remark, incidentally, that there are certain valuesthat we in our world accept which were probably created by early Romanticismand did not exist before: for example, the idea that variety is a good thing,that a society in which many opinions are held, and those holding differentopinions are tolerant of each other, is better than a monolithic in whichone opinion is binding on everyone. Nobody before the eighteenth centurycould have accepted that: the truth was one and the idea of variety wasinimical to it. Again, the idea of sincerity, as a value, is something new.It was always right to be a martyr to the truth, but only to the truth:Muslims who died for Islam were poor, foolish, misled creatures who died fornonsense; so, for Catholics, were Protestants and Jews and pagans; and thefact that they held their beliefs sincerely made them no better -- what wasimportant was to be right. In discovering the truth, as in every other walkof life, success was what was important, not motive. If a man says to youthat he believes that twice two is seventeen, and someone says, "You know,he doesn't do it to annoy you, he doesn't do it because he wants to show offor because he has been paid to say it -- he truly believes, he is a sincerebeliever," you would say, "This makes it no better, he is talkingirrational nonsense." That is what Protestants were doing, in the view ofCatholics, and vice versa. The more sincere, the more dangerous; nomarks were given for sincerety until the notion that there is more than oneanswer to a question -- that is, pluralism -- became more widespread. Thatis what led value to be set on motive rather than on consequence, on sincerityrather than on success.The enemy of pluralism is monism -- the ancient belief that there is a singleharmony of truths into which everything, if it is genuine, in the end must fit.The consequence of this belief (which is something different from, butakin to, what Karl Popper called essentialism -- to him the root of allevil) is that those who know should command those who do not. Those whoknow the answers to some of the great problems of mankind must be obeyed, forthey alone know how society should be organized, how individual lives shouldbe lived, how culture should be developed. This is the old Platonic beliefin the philosopher-kings, who were entitled to give orders to others. Therehave always been thinkers who hold that if only scientists, or scientificallytrained persons, could be put in charge of things, the world would be vastlyimproved. To this I have to say that no better excuse, or even reason, hasever been propounded for unlimited despotism on the part of an elite whichrobs the majority of its essential liberties.Someone once remarked that in the old days men and women were brought assacrifices to a variety of gods; for these, the modern age has substitutedthe new idols: isms. To cause pain, to kill, to torture are in general rightlycondemned; but if these things are done not for my personal benefit but for anism -- socialism, nationalism, fascism, communism, fanatically held religiousbelief, or progress, or the fulfillment of the laws of history -- then theyare in order. Most revolutionaries believe, covertly or overtly, that inorder to create the ideal world eggs must be broken, otherwise one cannotobtain an omelette. Eggs are certainly broken -- never more violentlythan in our times -- but the omelette is far to seek, it recedes into aninfinite distance. That is one of the corollaries of unbridled monism, asI call it -- some call it fanaticism, but monism is at the root of everyextremism.Backto Lifschitz's web page |
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