AccScience Publishing / BIJP / Volume 16 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.29228/beytulhikme.87642
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

On the Verge of the Modern Liberal Paradigm: Isaiah Berlin and the Construction of Liberal Nationalism 

Ceren Yıldırım1 ,  Levent Görüşük2
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1 Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü 58140, Sivas, Türkiye
2 Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, İkt. ve İdari Bil. Fak., Siyaset Bil. ve Kamu Yönetimi Böl. 58140, Sivas, Türkiye
BIJP 2026, 16(1), 229–249; https://doi.org/10.29228/beytulhikme.87642
Received: 7 October 2025 | Published online: 10 March 2026
© 2026 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Isaiah Berlin, one of the leading English liberal thinkers of the twentieth century, stands out for his distinctive position within the liberal tradition and his interdisciplinary approach that unites ethics, history, and philosophy. This study aims to examine Berlin’s concepts of freedom, value pluralism, and liberal nationalism within a coherent framework of political philosophy. Berlin conceives freedom both as independence from external interference and as the existential ground of the autonomous agent capable of choosing among conflicting values. He interprets negative liberty and value pluralism as two complementary axes. For Berlin, freedom rests upon the individual’s capacity for decision-making; yet these decisions are shaped by the plurality of incommensurable values. His major contribution lies in his critique of the totalitarian tendencies of moral and political monism, which instrumentalize positive liberty to suppress individual autonomy. Against Platonic monism, Berlin’s doctrine of value pluralism offers a pluralistic moral universe grounded in ethical norms and cultural diversity. In this regard, he distinguishes nationalism from its oppressive forms, associating it instead with freedom, pluralism, and the demand for recognition; thus, he redefines modern liberalism as a paradigm that reconciles individual autonomy with collective belonging.

Keywords
Isaiah Berlin
liberalism
liberty
pluralism
liberal nationalism.
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Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy, Print ISSN: 1303-8303, Published by AccScience Publishing
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