Litnet

Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) is in die tweede helfte van die vorige eeu, na Maurice Bowra (SêNet 21 deser), in talle opsigte as die verpersoonliking van die Universiteit Oxford en daarby dikwels as die voorste Britse openbare intellektueel beskou. Soos sy Franse teenhanger, Raymond Aron (1905-1983), het Berlin marxisme as die opium van die intellektueel beskou. Michael Ignatieff se Isaiah Berlin: A Life (London: Chatto & Windus, 1998, 384p) is 'n gemagtigde biografie in die beste sin van die woord. Berlin wou nie (kon eintlik nie) self sy outobiografie skryf nie. Met die uitsondering van sy boek oor Karl Marx (1939) in sy jeug, was die skryf van 'n omvattende werk altyd bo Berlin se vuurmaakplek. Hy het veel eerder lesings gelewer en na aanleiding daarvan essays as tydskrifartikels gepubliseer.

Ignatieff het Berlin se goedkeuring as biograaf weggedra en vrye toegang tot sy chaotiese dokumentasie gehad. Hulle het in 1987, dus 'n dekade voor Berlin se dood, met die biografieprojek begin deur periodiek tot kort voor sy dood te vergader. Daarna het die outeur verdere onderhoude met bv familielede gevoer, die teks afgerond en die boek 'n jaar na Berlin se dood gepubliseer. Van die begin af was die verstandhouding dat Berlin nie die teks sou sien nie en dat die biografie nie in sy leeftyd gepubliseer sou word nie. Ignatieff is 'n oudstudent van Berlin en sy pa was 'n Rus; twee eienskappe wat hom gehelp het om 'n uitstekende teks te skep.

Om Berlin te verstaan, is sy Russiese konneksie van deurslaggewende belang: "Isaiah's intellectual centre of gravity always remained Russian" (Kindle 867). Hy is in Riga, die hoofstad van Letland, toe 'n Russiese provinsie, gebore. Duits was die kultuur- en handelstaal, maar Russies was die taal van regering en administrasie. Daarbenewens is Letties en Jiddisj in Letland gepraat. Die Berlins was Jode. Sy pa was in die houthandel bedrywig. Isaiah se eerste taal was Russies en sy tweede taal Duits. Isaiah was die enigste kind wat sy middeljarige ouers kon verwek. Tydens geboorte is sy linkerarm beseer, gevolglik was dit altyd net in beperkte mate bruikbaar. Isaiah het hoogs bedorwe grootgeword en was lewenslank tot ipekonders geneig.

Tydens die Eerste Wêreldoorlog het die Berlins in 1916 na Petrograd (St Petersburg) uitgewyk. In 1917 het twee Russiese rewolusies in Isaiah die "horror of physical violence" gevestig (K 508). Maar dit was ook die jaar waarin die Balfour-verklaring, na die bolsjewistiese rewolusie, hoop op 'n tuisland aan Jode gebring het. Isaiah het hom grootliks self tydens biblioteekbesoeke onderrig, aangevul met leeswerk tuis, in Russies sowel as Duits. Uit hierdie tyd dateer sy liefde vir 19de eeuse Russiese literatuur, opera en klassieke musiek. In 1920 was die Berlins terug in Riga. "We were Jews ... We were not Russian. We were not Letts" (K 631). Isaiah se pa was 'n "Anglo-maniac" (K 639). In 1921 het die Berlins hulle in Engeland gevestig. Hier het hulle eerder met Engelse as Russiese Jode geassosieer. Maar Isaiah "lacked the cultural hinterland that other English boys could take for granted" (K 798).

Isaiah het nooit nostalgies terug na Letland of Rusland gehunker nie: "Exile consolidated detachment" (K 677). Assimilasie was sy voorland. Die Berlins se huistaal het hoofsaaklik Engels geword en hulle judaïsme is verder afgeskaal. Isaiah "became a master at fitting in, at the price of lingering self-dislike" (K 690). Sy pa, Mendel, "was easy-going about religious matters," maar nie sy ma, Marie, nie (K 784). Isaiah het egter later tot die gevolgtrekking gekom "that a personal God ... was unlikely to exist" (K 825). Marie se sionisme het Isaiah wél beïnvloed. Maar hy het nie in dogmatisme verval nie. As die kind van 'n houthandelaar het hy Immanuel Kant se woorde onthou: "Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made" (K 1760).

In 1928 is Berlin na die Universiteit Oxford, Corpus Christi College, waar hy die klassieke oudheid, filosofie, staatsleer en ekonomie bestudeer het. Hy het 'n bril met dik lense gedra, was lief vir lees, maar "never thought of himself as the owlish, studious type" (K 802). "He was not a strong classics scholar; classicists had neat, tidy minds. His was neither" (K 937). Hy het tot laat saans studeer. Sy essays was "much too long" (K 942). In werklikheid was hy "a dipper" (K 963) wat bronne nie van voor tot agter gelees het nie. "A selective intelligence coupled with a prodigious memory enabled him to amass the breadth of reference that amazed his friends. But he was never an orderly worker" (K 963).

"In the summer of 1931, Berlin made a friendship with the most notorious and celebrated young don of his day, the then regarded as 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know'. This was Maurice Bowra" (K991). Maar Berlin was teen (openlike) homoseksualiteit gekant. Kommunisme was toe in die mode, wat Berlin se "liberal civility" (K 1032) teengespreek het. Hy het 'n studie van Karl Marx onderneem: "What fascinated him was Marx's loathing for the very civilization he himself admired" (K 1384). Hy was sterk teen Marx se historiese determinisme gekant. Berlin was altyd spraaksaam en het daarby vinnig gepraat. Maar hy was bereid om ook te luister. "As his friends noticed this capacity for listening, for empathy with their predicaments, he began, even in his twenties, to acquire a reputation for being wise, for having some mysterious gift of sound human judgement" (K 1063).

As student is Berlin deur Britse empirisme beïnvloed: "There was only one world ... 'the world of human experience'" (K 3851). Hy is ook deur analitiese filosofie beïnvloed, maar anders as die logiese positiviste wou hy filosofie nie tot sekretarisskap van die wetenskappe (dus begripsontleding) beperk nie. Berlin het twee akademiese verskynsels sterk afgekeur: "Obscurity and pretentiousness" (K 975). Hy het dit veral teen die pretensie tot (natuur)wetenskaplikheid by die sosiale wetenskappe gehad. By GE Moore, wat aan die Universiteit Cambridge was, het Berlin geleer: "Die function of philosophy was to defend 'civilised society'" (K 987). Anders as Miguel de Unamuno het Berlin nie gedink dat Europa 'n nuwe barbaarsheid nodig het voordat vernuwing moontlik sou wees nie. 'n Vraag wat Gertrude Stein gestel het, "Must things have something to do with everything?" het hom bygebly (K 1311).

In 1932 het Berlin 'n dosent in filosofie aan Oxford se New College geword. In 1933 is hy verkies tot socius ("fellow") aan Oxford se All Souls College; 'n akademiese betrekking wat geen doseerpligte vereis het nie. Op 23-jarige ouderdom was Berlin die eerste Jood wat op hierdie manier erkenning ontvang het. In 1938 het hy 'n socius met doseerpligte aan Oxford se New College geword. Deurgaans het Berlin probeer om Joodse, Russiese en Engelse elemente in sy identiteit te harmonieer tot "a womb with a view, a womb of one's own" (K 1251). Die verwysings is na EM Forster se "A room with a view" en Virginia Woolf se "A room of one's own".

Gedurende die Tweede Wêreldoorlog was Berlin van 1940 af 'n Britse inligtingsattaché in Amerika. Met sy innemende geaardheid, sosiale aanleg en intelligensie het hy uitstekende berigte oor die Amerikaanse houding jeens Brittanje en die oorlog na Londen gestuur, waarvan die eerste minister, Winston Churchill, kennis geneem het. "Washington taught him that even great political figures rarely understood the history they were trying to shape to their own design" (K 2427). "He realised that he had a habit of 'seeing a pattern in the carpet'" (K 2552). "His talent was for synthesis, not for scholarship; the essay, not the monograph. The audience he cared about was the educated middle class, not the specialists, though he knew he must earn their respect" (K 3435). Hy het sowel fascisme as kommunisme verwerp, met as uitgangspunt: "We're supposed to be fighting for civilisation against barbarism" (K 2521).

Na jare in die VSA, het Berlin 'n amptenaar in die Britse ambassade in Rusland geword. Hy het veral by die Joodse intelligensia aansluiting gevind en verstaan waarom hulle so lojaal aan Rusland is, maar nie aan die Sowjetunie nie. Hulle was deel van die Europese kultuur, van "preserving European standards of culture against the Soviet tide" (K 3121). Tydens Joseph Stalin se skrikbewind was die intelligensia se geneigdheid tot stilswye vir hom verstaanbaar. Hy het aangetrokke gevoel tot "the Russian conception of the intellectual as a moral authority" (K 4041). Die marxistiese leerstelling van "historical inevitability" kon hy nooit aanvaar nie (K 4065). Hy het ook gemeen dat daar 'n wyer wordende gaping tussen liberalisme en sosialisme waarneembaar was.

In 1946 het Berlin na Oxford teruggekeer. "He was an eccentric teacher, often taking tutorials in pyjamas and dressing-gown, or actually in bed" (K 3385). Hy het voortaan toegang tot die hoogste sosiale kringe gehad: "A salon conversationalist, an intellectual acrobat in the society circus" (K 3403). "Parties, in fact, were one place where good ideas occurred to him" (K 3410). "He loved company too much to spend the best years of his life in the library" (K 3435). Teen die agtergrond van sy jeug was die kenmerke van sy denke verstaanbaar: vryheid, verdraagsaamheid en pluralisme (dus die erkenning van verskille in waardes, kultuur of leefwyse).

"Two basic predispositions - that values might be incompatible, and that human beings were not infinitely malleable - took root very early" (K 1755). "Everything, as Bishop [Joseph] Butler had said, is what it is and not another thing" (K 5509). Mense is dus ook soos hulle is. In sy lewensuitkyk was Berlin liberaal, sekulêr en skepties. Maar hy het besef dat sy denke 'n sterker fokus nodig gehad het. "The domains of philosophy that Isaiah was to make his own - the philosophy of history and the theory of liberty - formed no part of his undergraduate syllabus" (K 1147). "Isaiah would study how ideas permeated and gave shape to the intellectual vocation" (K 3460).

Berlin was 'n eienaardige akademikus. Hy was die teenoorgestelde van die geleerde wat sy tyd in die biblioteek deurgebring of hom in sy studeerkamer afgesonder het. "He hates thinking alone ... With him, thinking is indistinguishable from talking" (K 156). "What people remember about his conversation is not what he said - he [anders as Bowra] is no wit and no epigrams have attached themselves to his name - but the experience of having been drawn into the salon of his mind" (K 160). Uit gewoonte het Berlin sy tekste gedikteer. Dit bring mee dat hulle soos voordragte lees. "Each sentence carries clarity along its spine with qualification entwined around it" (K 147). "The price of his uncanny oral fluency was an anxiety that he was 'a mere rattle', someone who, he said, cast 'bogus pearls before real swine'" (K 4439).

Na twee ernstige verhoudings met getroude vroue is Berlin, hierdie "least marriageable man" (K 4283), in 1956 met Aline Halban, 'n Jodin met drie kinders, getroud. Sy het vanweë hulle verhouding van haar eerste man geskei. In 1958 het Berlin sy intreerede as Chichele Professor in Sosiale en Politieke Teorie aan Oxford gelewer. Veral sedert hierdie tyd het Berlin se denke sy eie kenmerkende aard ontwikkel. Voor dit was hy 'n "intellectual taxi" wat gegaan het waar omstandighede hom gelei het (K 208). Wat hy nou in sy denke probeer naspeur het, is "human self-deception" (K 182). Hy het gesoek na "an over-arching theory of human existence" (K 3416).

"He was always fascinated by celebrity, by character, by larger-than life figures" (K 1303). Een van die belangrikste gevolgtrekkings waartoe Berlin gekom het, is "that artists and thinkers of greatness have a core idea, which ... is always simple" (K 1114). Na aanleiding van die Griekse digter Archilochus het hy gesê: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing" (K 3410). "He found 'the one big thing' that was to order his intellectual life ... the theme of freedom and its betrayal" (K 3970). Berlin was op soek na "a personal intellectual morality ... He was looking for a path between heavy-going engagement and mandarin detachment. He wanted to be serious without being solemn, to defend beliefs without being dogmatic, and to be entertaining without being facile" (K 3423). Berlin was 'n intuïtiewe denker "interested ... in inner anguish, personal dilemmas, and the conflict between human values" (K 3442).

In sy 1958-intreerede het hy tussen negatiewe vryheid (vry van) en positiewe vryheid (vry om) onderskei en die klem op eersgenoemde geplaas. "A liberal might have to defend liberty (of, say, a minority) against a democratic tyranny" (K 4470). "National liberation movements that claimed to be fighting for liberty against a colonial oppressor were not necessarily fighting for liberty, but for recognition of their distinctiveness as a national people and for the status of national independence" (K 4482). "Fighting injustice was essential, but men 'do not live only by fighting evils'" (K 3927). Berlin was skepties oor die waarde van demokrasie en politieke deelname. Hy was teen terrorisme gekant, ook dié gepleeg deur bv Menachem Begin by die King David Hotel in 1946. "He could see that the Arabs preferred to be governed badly by their own people rather than be well governed by the Jews" (K 1567). Berlin was gekant teen die romantisering van geweld, die "revolutionary cult of violence" (K 4978) en die "growth of barbarism" (K 5025).

Mense skep self hulle waardes. "Each culture had its own centre of gravity" (K 4832). "Values ... were historical, relative to the cultures that engendered them and contradictory, since human nature itself was contradictory" (K 3991), bv "equality, liberty and justice contradicted each other" (K 4495), maar dit maak hulle nie minder geldig nie. "The more we understood the past, the less we were able to apply our moral standards to the alien circumstances of the past" (K 4083). Die pluralistiese en teenstrydige aard van waardes veroorsaak egter nie dat alle waardes relatief is nie. Sommige waardes word oral en altyd as geldig aanvaar. Hy was geneig om vryheid as die belangrikste waarde te beskou, maar selfs "freedom did not always make men better" (K 4526). Pluralisme impliseer liberalisme, maar nie kosmopolitisme en internasionalisme nie, want iedere mens wil voel dat hy êrens tuishoort.

"By the 1820s, thanks to the Romantics, none of the legs of the rationalist tripod [was] standing: the idea that there was one right answer to all human questions; that the truth was the same to all human beings; that human values could never contradict each other" (K 4832). Berlin verkies 'n nuwe stel waardes: "sincerety, authenticity and toleration" (K 4838).

Van 1966 tot 1975 was Berlin die president van Wolfson College, Oxford, en van 1974 tot 1978 president van die British Academy. Uiteindelik was dit vir hom onmoontlik om "a work of grand synthesis" te lewer (K 5456). Sy "self-doubt as an intellectual had grown with the years" (K 5173). Lewenslank was daar by Berlin "the feeling that his achievements were of 'very little or of no value' ... the self-doubt ... was also part of a carefully cultivated strategy of self-deprecation intended to deflect and disarm criticism. Beneath this exterior, there was a quiet and unshakeable sense of self-worth" (K 422). "I knew I wasn't first rate, but I was good enough" (K 1690).

Die invloed van Wittgenstein kan by Berlin bespeur word: "We cannot speak without incurring some risk, at least in theory; the only way of being absolutely safe is to say absolutely nothing" (K 1723). Aanvanklik het dit gelyk asof Berlin min gepubliseer het. "Close friends like Maurice Bowra were to jibe that 'like Our Lord and Socrates, he does not publish much'" (K 5533). Henry Hardy het 23 jaar voor Berlin se dood begin om sy manuskripte en publikasies (veral tydskrifartikels) op te spoor, te korrigeer (die aanhalings en bronverwysings was dikwels foutief) en in monografiese bundels te publiseer. Hierdie boeke het Berlin se akademiese aansien 'n hupstoot gegee.

"He had never believed in the consolations of philosophy. He had always been a Humean and his scepticism towards metaphysics, towards reaching after ultimate questions, served him well in old age ... If history had no libretto, why should an ordinary life have one?" (K 5509). "As for the meaning of life, I do not believe that it has any ... We make of it what we can and that is all there is about it. Those who seek for some deep cosmic all-embracing ... libretto or God are, believe me, pathetically mistaken" (K 5515).

Johannes Comestor