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Jewish fellows at Oxford

The comment about Berlin's being only the third Jew elected Fellow of an Oxford College needs some qualification (I emended it from the original identification of him as the second Jew to be elected a fellow). Berlin was the third openly Jewish individual to hold a Fellowship at Oxford (and the first openly Jewish individual to be elected a Fellow of All Souls). One of those before him was Samuel Alexander (1859-1938), a professor of philosophy originally from Australia, who was a fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford from 1882-93 (the college is said to have been unaware that he was Jewish when they appointed him). James Joseph Sylvester (1814-97) was technically not elected to a Fellowship; he was appointed the Savilian Professor of Geometry, and by virtue of this became a Professorial fellow of New College, Oxford. Berlin was preceeded at All Souls by Leopold Stennet Amery, whose mother was born Jewish, but had converted to Protestantism; Amery was not raised a Jew, and hid his Jewish ancestry (although an opponent of anti-Semitism and Nazism and strong supporter of Zionism himself, his son, John Amery, bizarrely and sadly became a Nazi sympathizer, and was executed for treason after World War II).

All this talk about Jewish fellows at Oxford is caused by post-War guilt. English and
German attitudes towards Jews have been similar or identical for centuries. The British Aliens Act of 1905 was intended to keep Jews out. Similar legislation applied to America.
That must be why the British took so many Jews before WW II then when other countries where barring them entry; Kindertransport.

Positive and Negative Liberty

It would be nice to see an improved summation of his very important work on "Two Concepts of Liberty". The paragraph in this article is turgid and not very informative. DonPMitchell (talk) 22:07, 30 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dominant scholar of his generation?

"thought by many to be the dominant scholar of his generation"

He wrote a number of essays about various European thinkers who prepared the way for, were examples of, or followed in the wake of, what can broadly be described as "Romanticism". Berlin could fairly be described as one of the best known scholars of his generation, but there were numerous far more distinguished scholars. To describe him as the dominant scholar of his generation is absurd.

"He excelled as an essayist, conversationalist and raconteur; and as a brilliant lecturer"

Berlin was a fair writer and lecturer, but if you listen to him or read him he is often very long winded, and his ideas (such as they are) were unoriginal. Again the praise is over the top.

"the world's greatest talker, the century's most inspired reader, one of the finest minds of our time"

More ridiculous exaggeration. Few would dispute that Berlin liked to talk, to claim he was the century's most inspired reader is laughable.

"Berlin's work on liberal theory and on value pluralism has had a lasting influence."

Value pluralism is not a new idea. His contribution was to remind us of the writings of some of the C18th and C19th advocates of this idea.

"Wittgenstein rejected the argument of his paper in discussion but praised Berlin for his intellectual honesty and integrity."

Berlin cut his cloth according to the prevailing wind. It put food on his table, and he liked to live well, to view him as heroic is absurd.

"Berlin's argument was partly grounded in Wittgenstein's later theory of language"

Wittgenstein was drawing on the same tradition as Berlin, except that Berlin did it explicitly because he knew far more about the history of ideas than Wittgenstein.

(ERIDU-DREAMING (talk) 04:55, 29 October 2013 (UTC)).[reply]

The first three of these are referenced, admittedly to obituaries. The next two points are quibbles frankly. If you have better references by all means adjust the article, though your assessment seems a tad mean-spirited frankly. Johnbod (talk) 03:14, 30 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Was he the "dominant scholar of his generation" or not? A reference to one of his friends saying that hardly settles the issue. Frankly it is a ridiculous claim. The whole entry reads like a PR piece written by his publisher. Lasting influence? I think history will decide that don't you? The rest of the article is packed with superlatives. You think that pointing this out is mean spirited? Wikipedia articles should be factual not puff pieces. If you think you are more fair minded then change it to whatever you consider to be factual. I have no intention of having edit wars with his publishers and/or former pupils and/or his fans. I am simply drawing attention to hyperbole and suggesting that his publishers and/or former pupils and/or fans provide a more factual summary.
ERIDU-DREAMING (talk) 19:55, 31 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The quote from the BBC at the head of the article and the assessment of the ODNB ("Berlin was one of the most important historians of ideas in the twentieth century") does seem to suggest that the scholarly consensus is that Berlin was one of the most important scholars of his age. However I do find it hard to disagree with your estimate of him.--Britannicus (talk) 21:06, 31 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I almost broke out in laughter at the overblown description of Berlin in the summary paragraphs. Obituaries always exaggerate the positive and eliminate the negative -- and the obits are sources for most of the superlatives. Let's get some balance in this description and cut out the POV words. Or let's tag it as a puff piece. 21:07, 7 March 2016 (UTC) Sorry, I just noticed I didn't sign this comment. Smallchief (talk 07:50, 15 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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