Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylor on Johann Gottfried Herder : a comparative study

Abstract

This thesis offers a comparison, which rarely, if ever, has been made between Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylor’s account of the ideas of Johann Gottfried Herder on the relationship of language, culture and nationality. It argues that Berlin misrepresents Herder’s ideas in emphasizing the extent to which differences in language and culture necessarily result in ethnic and national conflicts between incompatible cultural worldviews, while Taylor does correctly understand that Herder sees no reason for why such conflict between cultural entities should be inevitable either within a single state or between states. The thesis concludes by offering reasons for why Herder, properly understood, allows us to be optimistic about the future of both intrastate and interstate relationships among diverse cultural groups.