The Ratio of Political Goodness and Negative Freedom in Berlin's Political Thought (With Emphasis on Russian Communism)

Subject Areas : علوم سیاسی

Mahin Niroomand ¹ , Hassan Abniki ²

1 -
2 -

Received: 2018-01-18 Accepted : 2018-05-20 Published : 2018-06-01

Keywords: Russia, Goodness, Pluralism, Isaiah Berlin, Political Goodness, Communism,

Abstract :

The present article aims to examine Isaiah Berlin's views and ideas, and gives answers to the questions of how political goodness is linked to the concept of negative liberty in Berlin's thought, and how his view of political goodness has formed his critique looking toward the political system of the Soviet Union. Political goodness in Berlin's thought seems to be multiplied, and from the pluralist perspective links to the notion of negative freedom, which means the choice among values by the humans. Berlin believes that political goodness belongs to certain cultural and social contexts and criticize it for the fact that the Russian Communism has a monistic view of political truths in society. In other words (Namely), it can be said that negative liberty as a restriction of decision-making and human selection, is the most important and central element of the political goodness, and without it, other goodness cannot be raised considerably. According to Isaiah Berlin's pluralistic view, we find that the ruling party in the Soviet political system, based on Marxist ideology, is a monotonous and monistic party that did not allow growth and presence of other political ideas.

References:

Alam Abdolrahman (1997), History of Western political philosophy,  Tehran, State Department Publication

Berdyaev Nikolai (2004), The Origins of Russian Communism and its Concept, translated by Reza Enayatollah, Tehran, Khorshid Afarin publication

Berlin Isaiah (1998), Russian thinkers,  Translated by Najaf Darya bandari, Tehran,  Kharazmi publication

Berlin Isaiah (2007), Freedom and betrayal to freedom, Translated by Ezatollah Fooladvand, Tehran, Mahi publication

Berlin Isaiah (2013), Karl Marx,  translated by Reza Rezaii, Tehran, Mahi publication

Berlin Isaiah (2013), Russian mind in Soviet system,  translated by Reza Rezaii, Tehran, Mahi publication

Classco George (2015), History of the political philosophy of the classical period,  translated by Khashayar Deihimi, Tehran, Ney publication

Dunces, Helen Caro (1993),  Russia's misery, translated by Abdolhossein Nik Gohar, Tehran, Alborz publication

Gary John (2008), Liberalism,  translated by Mohammad Savoji,  Tehran,  Department of State publication

Gilson Ethan (1990), The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, translated by A, Davoodi, Tehran, Scientific and Cultural publication

Heywood Andrew (2004), An Introduction to Political Ideology, translated by Mohammad Rafiee Mehrabadi,  Tehran, Political and International Affairs Office

Hobbes Thomas (2005), Leviathan,  translated by Hossein Bashirieh, Ney publishing house

Karami Jahangir (2014), Contradictory Models of Development in Russia: Three Centuries of Search and its Achievements,  Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Volume 10, Number 28.

             

63

Koolaei Elahe (1997), Politics and government in the Russian Federation, Tehran,  Department of State publication

 

Locke John (2009), l. Second Treatise on Government, Translated by Shahram Arshadnejad, Tehran:  Roshangaran and women's studies publication

Machiavelli Nicola (2005), Shahriyar, translated by Mahmoud, Tehran, Attar publication

Meshkat Mohammad and Mohsen Fazeli (2014), A critical review of the concept of freedom from Isaiah Berlin's point of view,  Fundamental westology, Human Sciences Research and Cultural Studies, Fifth year, No.2, Fall and Winter

Plato (1989), Republic.  Translated by Fouad Rouhani,  Tehran,  Scientific and Cultural publication

Pooladi Kamal (2014), Political Thought in the West from Succurrat to Machiavelli, Tehran : Markaz publication

Rousseau John-Jacques (1989), Social Contract, Tehran : Adib publication

Spragens Thomas (2015), Understanding Political Theories, Translated by Rajaee Farhang,  Tehran : Agah  publication

Strauss Leo (2012), What is the political philosophy?  Translated by Rajaee Farhang, Tehran, Scientific and Cultural publication