Berlin, Isaiah (1909–1997)

Latvian-born British philosopher and historian of ideas. A man of great energy, Berlin's gifts – as philosopher, broadcaster, and lecturer – were employed across the whole spectrum of intellectual life. In The Hedgehog and the Fox, he wrote about Leo Tolstoy's theory of irresistible historical forces; and in Historical Inevitability (1954) and Four Essays on Liberty (1969), he attacked all forms of historical determinism.

Berlin emigrated with his family to the UK in 1920. He was professor of social and political theory at Oxford University (1957–67), going on to serve as president of Wolfson College (1966–75). He was president of the British Academy (1974–78). A pluralist, he was a believer in individual freedom and was a lifelong supporter of Zionism. He was knighted in 1957.

His other works include Karl Marx (1939), Two Concepts of Liberty (1957), and Vico and Herder (1976). Some of Berlin's finest essays were collected not long before his death in The Proper Study of Mankind (1997).