Volume 48, Number 16 · October 18, 2001
Notes on Prejudice
By Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin liked to allude to a passage in Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy where Russell says that, if we are to understand a philosopher's views, we must 'apprehend their imaginative background,'[1] or the philosopher's 'inner citadel,' as Berlin calls it.[2] The character of one of the main rooms in Berlin's own citadel is vividly expressed in some hurried notes Berlin wrote for a friend (who does not wish to be identified) in 1981. His friend was due to give a lecture, and wrote to Berlin to ask for suggestions about how he might treat his theme. Berlin had to go abroad early on the day after he received the request, and wrote the notes quickly, in his own hand, without time for revision or expansion. The result is somewhat breathless and telegraphic, no doubt, but it conveys with great immediacy Berlin's opposition to intolerance and prejudice, especially fanatical monism, stereotypes, and aggressive nationalism. Its relevance to the events of September 11, 2001, hardly needs stressing.
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