Who Is Isaiah Berlin? Age, Biography, and Wiki
Born on June 6, 1909, Isaiah Berlin would be 116 years old if he were alive in 2025. A Russian-born British intellectual, Berlin was one of the leading thinkers of his time, focusing on the complexities of freedom and liberalism. He became known for his influential essays and lectures, articulating concepts that resonate in modern political discourse. His excitement for knowledge and inquiry has inspired generations of students and philosophers alike.
| Occupation | Philosophers |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | June 6, 1909 |
| Age | 88 Years |
| Birth Place | Riga, Livonia, Russian Empire (now Latvia) |
| Horoscope | Gemini |
| Country | England |
| Date of death | 5 November, 1997 |
| Died Place | Oxford, England |
Popularity
Isaiah Berlin's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
As a historical figure, precise details about Isaiah Berlin's height and weight are not commonly documented. However, he was known to be of average height during his lifetime, reflecting the typical stature of men in his era. While specific measurements are unavailable for 2025, his physical presence was often overshadowed by his intellectual prowess.
While still a student, he befriended Ayer (with whom he was to share a lifelong amicable rivalry), Stuart Hampshire, Richard Wollheim, Maurice Bowra, Roy Beddington, Stephen Spender, Inez Pearn, J. L. Austin and Nicolas Nabokov.
In 1940 he presented a philosophical paper on other minds to a meeting attended by Ludwig Wittgenstein at Cambridge University. Wittgenstein rejected the argument of his paper in discussion but praised Berlin for his intellectual honesty and integrity.
Berlin was to remain at Oxford for the rest of his life, apart from a period working for British Information Services (BIS) in New York City from 1940 to 1942 and for the British embassies in Washington, D.C., and Moscow from then until 1946. Before crossing the Atlantic in 1940, Berlin took rest in Portugal for a few days.
He stayed in Estoril, at the Hotel Palácio, between 19 and 24 October 1940. Prior to this service, however, Berlin was barred from participation in the British war effort as a result of his being born in Latvia, and because his left arm had been damaged at birth.
In April 1943 he wrote a confidential analysis of members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the Foreign Office; he described Senator Arthur Capper from Kansas as "a solid, stolid, 78-year-old reactionary from the corn belt, who is the very voice of Mid-Western "grass root" isolationism." For his services, he was appointed a CBE in the 1
946 New Year Honours.
Meetings with Anna Akhmatova in Leningrad in November 1945 and January 1946 had a powerful effect on both of them, and serious repercussions for Akhmatova (who immortalised the meetings in her poetry).
Family, Dating & Relationship Status
Isaiah Berlin was known to have significant relationships during his lifetime, notably with his long-time partner, Aline de Neufville, with whom he shared both romantic and intellectual companionship. His personal life, particularly in romantic matters, was often considered private. By 2025, any updates related to his descendants or family would primarily focus on his lasting influence rather than new relationships.
His family owned a timber company, one of the largest in the Baltics, as well as forests in Russia, from where the timber was floated down the Daugava river to its sawmills in Riga.
As his father, who was the head of the Riga Association of Timber Merchants, worked for the company in its dealings with Western companies, he was fluent not only in Yiddish, Russian, and German, but also in French and English. His Russian-speaking mother, Marie (Musya) Volshonok, was also fluent in Yiddish and Latvian.
Isaiah Berlin spent his first six years in Riga and later lived in Andreapol (a small timber town near Pskov, effectively owned by the family business) and Petrograd (now St Petersburg). In Petrograd, the family lived first on Vasilevsky Island and then on Angliiskii Prospekt on the mainland.
On Angliiskii Prospekt, they shared their building with other tenants, including an assistant Minister of Finnish affairs namned Ivanov, Princess Emeretinsky, and the composer Maximilian Steinberg with his wife Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova, the daughter of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
With the onset of the October Revolution of 1917, the fortunes of the building's tenants were rapidly reversed, with both the Princess Emeretinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov's daughter soon being made to stoke the building's stoves and sweep the yards.
Berlin witnessed the February and October Revolutions both from his apartment windows and from walks in the city with his governess, where he recalled the crowds of protesters marching on the Winter Palace Square.
Net Worth and Salary
Today, the legacy of Isaiah Berlin lives on through academic networks and online platforms. His works are frequently cited in philosophical texts, and discussions surrounding his ideas can be found on social media, academic blogs, and forums dedicated to philosophy and political theory. Various institutions also host events and symposia discussing his contributions, reflecting the enduring relevance of his thought in modern discourse.
Career, Business, and Investments
Isaiah Berlin's career was marked by his roles as a professor at various prestigious institutions, including Oxford University. He authored several influential texts, including "Two Concepts of Liberty" and "The Hedgehog and the Fox," which continue to be studied and revered in philosophy and political science today. Though he did not engage in business or investments in a typical sense, his intellectual 'investments' in ideas have generated endless discussions, courses, and lectures well into the 21st century.
Born in Riga (now the capital of Latvia, then a part of the Russian Empire), he moved to Petrograd, Russia, at the age of 6, where he witnessed the Russian Revolution. In 1921 his family moved to England, and he was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
In 1932, at the age of 23, Berlin was elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. In addition to his own output, he translated works by Ivan Turgenev from Russian into English. During the Second World War he worked for the British Diplomatic Service.
Education
From 1957 to 1967 Berlin was Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford. He was the president of the Aristotelian Society from 1963 to 1964. In 1966 he played a role in creating Wolfson College, Oxford, and became its founding president.
Berlin was appointed a CBE in 1946, knighted in 1957, and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1971. He was the president of the British Academy from 1974 to 1978.
He also received the 1979 Jerusalem Prize for his lifelong defence of civil liberties, and in 1994 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at the University of Toronto, for which occasion he prepared a "short credo" (as he called it in a letter to a friend), now known as "A Message to the Twenty-First Century", to be read on his behalf at
the ceremony.
