33BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS(1735), and Commonplace Book (1930).
Berkeley had aspirations to build a theo-
logical school in Bermuda, and the city,
Berkeley, in California is named after this
thinker.
BERLIN, SIR ISAIAH (1909–1997).
A Jewish philosopher and scholar, Berlin
was a historian of ideas and considered
one of the twentieth-century’s leading
liberal thinkers. Influenced by Kant,
Rousseau, and Hegel, and having wit-
nessed the political upheaval caused by
World War II and the Cold War, Berlin
spent his career defending liberalism
and value pluralism. Berlin was staunchly
opposed to any form of political extrem-
ism. In Historical Inevitability (1955) he
attack determinism in defense of individ-
ual moral responsibility.
Berlin is best known for his lecture
“Two Concepts of Liberty” (1958) in
which he creates a distinction between
positive and negative liberty. In the lec-
ture, Berlin favors negative liberty and
identifies positive liberty as a major fac-
tor in the rise of nationalism and com-
munism during the nineteenth century.
Much of the rest of Berlin’s career was
spent fine-tuning the concepts of positive
and negative liberty in the face of both
criticism and praise. His work is central
to any discussion regarding the defense
of civil liberties.
In 1957, Berlin became Professor of
Social and Political Theory at the Uni-
versity of Oxford. In 1967, he became
President of Wolfson College at Oxford.
Berlin’s works include Karl Marx (1939,
4th ed. 1978), Four Essays of Liberty
(1969), Vico and Herder (1976), Russian
Thinkers (1978), Concepts and Categories:
Philosophical Essays (1978), Against the
Current: Essays in the History of Ideas
(1979), The Crooked Timber of Humanity
(1990), and The Magus of the North:
J. G. Hamann and the Origins of Modern
Irrationalism (1993).BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX (1090–
1153). Abbot of Clairvaux, Bernard was
highly influential in promoting mystical
and revealed theology, while discourag-
ing philosophical theology that appeared
to give too much authority to human
reason (e.g., Abelard). His Sermons on the
Song of Songs (1135–1153) are an extra-
ordinary blend of erotic meditation and
theology. His other works include On
the Love of God (1126), On Grace and
Free Will (1127), and On Contemplations
(1150–1152).BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS.
Leibniz held that as a perfect being God
would create only the best possible world.
While lampooned in Voltaire’s Candide
and criticized by some who likened the
best of all possible worlds to the notion of
there being the greatest possible number,
some contemporary philosophers defend
Leibniz’s position.