Isaiah Berlin’s Two Concepts of Liberty

Dr Maria Dimova-Cookson

This lecture provides an overview of Isaiah Berlin’s concepts of positive and negative freedom as presented in his renowned 1958 essay, ‘Two Concepts of Liberty.’ The lecture emphasizes the Cold War context in which Berlin wrote his essay and highlights its continued relevance in today’s political climate, characterized by a populist rejection of liberal egalitarian values. By delving into the lecture, one gains an understanding of how negative freedom extends beyond its fundamental definition of ‘freedom from’ and explores the interplay between the two concepts of liberty and the ideas of monism and value pluralism. While Berlin’s essay may not have received extensive study in Bulgaria, it has been a key component of political theory curricula in Western universities, offering valuable insights into the post-World War II political history and intellectual thought in the Western world.