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Unfinished Dialogue is the fruit of nearly fifteen years of discussion-in person and by letter-between world-famous British philosopher Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) and Dr. Beata Polanowska-Sygulska of Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. Berlin always felt a special affinity for scholars from Eastern Europe, and the unique chemistry between him and this younger enthusiast for his ideas yielded a remarkable body of material, most of it hitherto unpublished.
This volume sheds considerable light on Berlin's thinking, clarifying some of the central themes of his philosophy. Divided into four sections, the book begins with a selection from the correspondence between Berlin and Polanowska-Sygulska dating from 1983 to 1997. These letters are published here in their entirety for the first time. The second section comprises two interviews Berlin gave in 1991 for Polish periodicals. Next come edited transcripts of a number of recorded conversations that took place between 1986 and 1995. In one conversation, Berlin tellingly recalls his childhood and youth. In other exchanges, the famous conversationalist is pressed to be more concise about some of his most contested views, particularly his concepts of liberty and value pluralism, and his response to criticism of these ideas by a wide range of authors. In one of his last letters to Dr. Polanowska-Sygulska, Berlin stated, "I have never expressed myself so clearly before, I believe." The book concludes with a collection of articles on Berlin's thought by Dr. Polanowska-Sygulska, stemming from her long-standing immersion in his work. Berlin himself thoroughly discussed three of these with the author and approved their publication. Complete with a foreword by Henry Hardy, Berlin's editor and collaborator of thirty years, and now one of his literary trustees, this fascinating collection of letters, conversations, and articles will be of the greatest interest to students and scholars of one of the 20th -century's most renowned intellectuals.For 15 years, British philosopher Berlin (1909-97) and Polish scholar Polanowska-Sygulska (theory & philosophy of law, Jagiellonian Univ., Krak w, Poland; Visages of Liberalism) corresponded and occasionally met at Oxford, during which time the latter probed the former on his most basic views. Berlin believed that attempts to supplement negative freedom (freedom from interference in one's life and speech) with positive freedom (actual empowerment to do things) tended to result in the kind of utopian planning that forced people into ideological straitjackets. Polanowska-Sygulska confronted him with the arguments of his sharpest critics, but Berlin stood his ground without adding much to the puzzle. The weakness of the book is that while his interlocutor asks the hard questions, she rather tamely accepts the old answers. The result, as Berlin's longtime editor, Henry Hardy, says in his foreword, is "at times exhilarating, at times frustrating." Most interesting are the passages in which Berlin contests the assertions of Georg Hegel, the godfather of positive freedom. Unfinished Dialogue includes letters, transcripts of recorded conversation, and articles by Polanowska-Sygulska on the philosopher. Academic libraries will need this book, but ordinary readers interested in the questions will find it entertaining as well.-Leslie Armour, Dominican Univ. Coll., Ottawa Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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Karla Schools
reviewed Unfinished Dialogue on February 10, 2011 Unfinished Dialogue
A collection of entertaining and never boring essays on very different kinds of philosophers and literary figures. One thing they all have in common: their mighty intellects. However, as the subtitle indicates, they have either used or abused those intellects. The obvious case for the latter being Hegel; in lesser degrees most of the others; and finally, the former being a few who have made good use of their God-given talent, like Wodehouse of Trollope, never mind that not everybody has been appreciative of the fact.
Mr. Kimball makes use of recently published books on those authors to recall those culturally relevant figures, in their worldly aspects as well as their social and academic repercussions. We get quite good analyses of personages like Hegel, Bertrand Russell, Kierkegaard, P.G. Wodehouse, David Stove, Schopenhauer, Tocqueville, Walter Bagehot... I liked some essays better than others; I didn't dislike any. But a few really were worth reads since I didn't know a thing about them and I became quite intrigued now, for instance, the case of David Stove or Bagehot or Trollope. If their lives do not appeal too much to the modern reader, at least Mr. Kimball does excellently well by getting us hooked on the nature of their work, quite worthy of the minds they had.
As for the negative side of the authors studied here, their abuse of intelligence, would suffice to quote the words of Bertrand Russell:
"I think he [Wittgenstein] has genius. In discussion with him I put out all my force and only just equaled his. With all my other pupils I should squash them flat if I did so."
A game, it was. I game of intellects; a competition of show-offs. Buffoons who made mockery of their clever minds by putting them to use only to win acclaim, reputation, a name. Proverbs 1:7 speaks to them when it calls them fools who despise wisdom and instruction. Why? because they have no fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.
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