Occasional Papers
Berlin in Autumn: The Philosopher in Old Age
Isaiah Berlin’s biographer, noted writer and broadcaster Michael Ignatieff, speculates about the relationship between philosophy and aging, and asks what philosophy had to do with Berlin’s equanimity in old age. All of Berlin’s thinking, Ignatieff writes, associated serenity with belonging, and belonging with self-knowledge: “If he was serene in old age it was because he knew who he was and where he belonged.” Robert Alter, Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, and Michael André Bernstein, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, respond to Ignatieff, assessing the role of philosophical reflection at any stage in a life trajectory.
Authors
Robert Alter
Kwame A. Appiah
T. J. Clark
J.M. Coetzee
Arthur Danto
Mike Davis
Natalie Zemon Davis
Wendy Doniger
Gerald Early
Christina Gillis, ed.
Anthony Grafton
Seamus Heaney
Eva Hoffman
Michael Ignatieff
Stephen Katz
Bert Keizer
Ivan Klima
Maya Lin
Alan Liu
Margaret Lock
Kenzaburô Ôe
Robert Pinsky
Michael Pollan
Sebastião Salgado
Peter Sellars
Maurice Sendak
Kathleen Woodward