The Crooked Timber of Humanity

Name: The Crooked Timber of Humanity
Author: Isaiah Berlin

by Isaiah Berlin

Essays on the tension between Enlightenment ideals and historical reality

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About the author

Isaiah Berlin

British philosopher and historian of ideas whose essay 'Two Concepts of Liberty' distinguished negative liberty (freedom from interference) from positive liberty (freedom to self-govern) in the most influential essay in 20th-century political philosophy. His studies of Russian thinkers and Romantic nationalism are also major works.

More by Isaiah Berlin

Four Essays on LibertyEssays on negative and positive liberty and their political implications
The Hedgehog and the FoxEssay on historical figures who are either hedgehogs or foxes in their thinking
Russian ThinkersEssays on major Russian philosophers and their influence on European thought
The Sense of RealityEssays on value pluralism, freedom, and the complexity of human experience
Two Concepts of LibertyInfluential essay distinguishing negative freedom from positive self-realization
Against the CurrentEssays on Romanticism's rebellion against Enlightenment rationalism