Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.
Isaiah BerlinRead
The case against the notion of historical objectivity is like the case against international law, or international morality; that it does not exist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Historical objectivity is a debated concept, suggesting that unbiased history or moral standards on a global scale are illusions.
Isaiah Berlin argues that the idea of historical objectivity is akin to the challenges faced by international law and morality; both concepts seemingly strive for an unattainable ideal where absolute truth or fairness can exist. He suggests that just as international law may not effectively govern all nations impartially, the notion that history can be recorded without bias or subjective influence is equally questionable. This statement encourages critical thinking about how history is interpreted and recorded, pushing the idea that our understanding of the past is often colored by perspectives and agendas.
Themes
HistoryObjectivityMoralityPerspectiveTruth
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on historical interpretation, one might quote this to emphasize the subjective nature of historical narratives.
More from Isaiah Berlin
All quotes βInjustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance - these may be cured by reform or revolution. But men do not live only by fighting evils. They live by positive goals, individual and collective, a vast variety of them, seldom predictable, at times incompatible.
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All central beliefs on human matters spring from a personal predicament.
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The underlying assumption that human nature is basically the same at all times, everywhere, and obeys eternal laws beyond human control, is a conception that only a handful of bold thinkers have dared to question.
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Utopias have their value -- nothing so wonderfully expands the imaginative horizons of human potentialities -- but as guides to conduct they can prove literally fatal.
Isaiah BerlinRead
But to manipulate men, to propel them toward goals which you-the social reformers-see, but they may not, is to deny their human essence, to treat them as objects without wills of their own, and therefore to degrade them.
Isaiah BerlinRead
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