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The Sense Of Reality
The Sense Of Reality
Apr 19, 2025 12:40 AM

Author:Isaiah Berlin

The Sense Of Reality

Eight of the nine pieces in The Sense of Reality are published here for the first time. The range is characteristically wide: realism in history; judgement in politics; the special right of philosophers to self-expression; the history of socialism; the nature and impact of Marxism; the radical cultural revolution instigated by romanticism; the Russian notion of artistic commitment; the origins and practice of nationalism. The title essay, starting from the impossibility of recreating a bygone epoch, provides a superb centrepiece.

Reviews

If it were possible to add to a reputation already so considerable, these essays would do it. All the productions of Berlin's long and distinguished career are characterised by urbanity, insight, profound scholarship and witty elegance. These traits are satisfyingly and instructively here present again

—— A.C. Grayling , Financial Times

As with all Berlin's essays in the history of ideas, they exude a generous, sympathetic and large-minded enthusiasm for all sorts of thinkers and all sorts of ideas that make them a continuous pleasure to read

—— Alan Ryan , Times Literary Supplement

Engrossingly readable

—— John Gray , The Times

A superb example of philosophy for the interested layman

—— Shusha Guppy , Independent

This volume is replete with wisdom and insight

—— Matthew D’Ancona , Sunday Telegraph

Enormously stimulating...The spell of Berlin is very much present

—— John Dunn , T.H.E.S

Berlin's style conveys an unrivalled depth of learning in prose of engaging informality. A humane light shines through every sentence

—— David Miller , Independent on Sunday

I've absolutely loved reading [Another Now] ... the second I started reading it, it surprised and intrigued me

—— Matthew Taylor, RSA

Another Now is not only a marvellously good read - it is a notable addition to the literature of social change

—— The Wire

The reason Varoufakis seems to have captured the imaginations of so many is that his words about the European crisis speak universal truths about democracy, capitalism and social policy

—— Guardian

One of my few heroes

—— Slavoj Zizek

The most interesting man in the world

—— Business Insider

With its mixture of exaggerated misanthropy and eloquent surrealism, Once Upon a Tome calls to mind the cult television sitcom Black Books, albeit with more emphasis on matters of genuine interest to bibliophiles.

—— Times Literary Supplement

Mr. Darkshire is a witty observer .... All of this-the craft and customs of an esoteric enterprise; the delights and irritations of buying and selling-is conveyed in charming short chapters with titles like "Kerfuffles," and in a prim tone perfectly suited to Mr. Darkshire's subject.

—— Wall Street Journal

Sen's gentle memoir shed[s] light on the distant nooks of a long life of distinction. ... There is something of Tagore in the judicious Mr. Sen. He is an un?inching man of science but also insistently humane.

—— Tunku Varadarajan , Wall Street Journal

warmhearted, clear-eyed account of the formative years of his life, a book that reaches from Myanmar to Berkeley ... a testament to just how far, in one life, one man might go into that vast world ... Sen's writing style is even-keeled and gently humorous.

—— Mythili G. Rao , Washington Post

PRAISE FOR AMARTYA SEN

—— -

With his masterly prose, ease of erudition and ironic humour, Sen is one of the few great world intellectuals on whom we may rely to make sense out of our existential confusion

—— Nadine Gordimer

Amartya Sen is one of the most distinguished minds of our time [who] enjoyably mixes moments of profundity with flashes of mischievous provocation

—— William Dalrymple , New York Review of Books

The world's poor and dispossessed could have no more articulate or insightful a champion

—— Kofi Annan

An accessible and exceptional humanitarian

—— Jon Snow , New Statesman

Sen is one of the great minds of both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We owe him a huge debt

—— Nicholas Stern

A distinguished inheritor of the tradition of public philosophy and reasoning - Roy, Tagore, Gandhi, Nehru ... if ever there was a global intellectual, it is Sen

—— Sunil Khilnani , Financial Times
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