A tale of trees and crooked timbers: Jacob Talmon and Isaiah Berlin on the question of Jewish Nationalism

Dubnov, Arie M.

doi:10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2007.12.003

Cited by 5 publications

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“…It was in this context that Talmon and Berlin, at the zenith of their intellectual careers and at the height of the Cold War, wrote their essays in defense of Zionism. As I have shown elsewhere, the similarity between the ideas of the two men is not coincidental, but bears evidence of extensive collaboration and a prolonged intellectual dialogue between the two (Dubnov 2008). Their rejection of cosmopolitanism found its way into their historical writings.…”

Section: IImentioning

confidence: 88%

Anti-cosmopolitan liberalism: Isaiah Berlin, Jacob Talmon and the dilemma of national identity

Dubnov

2010

Nations and Nationalism

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The debate between contemporary cosmopolitans and advocates of nationalism is hardly new. Nevertheless, much of it is based on the erroneous assumption that cosmopolitanism should be seen as an outgrowth of liberalism, and that both should be considered as the complete conceptual opposites of nationalism. In this article I focus on two of the post-war Jewish anglophile intellectuals who took part in this debate during the Cold War years: the Oxonian liberal philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-97) and the Israeli historian Jacob L. Talmon . I use their examples to argue that the dividing line between cosmopolitans and advocates of nationalism should not be regarded as signifying the distinction between liberals and anti-liberals; in fact, this debate also took place within the camp of the liberal thinkers themselves. I divide my discussion into three parts. Firstly, I examine Berlin's and Talmon's positions within the post-war anti-totalitarian discourse, which came to be known as 'liberalism of fear'. Secondly, I show how a sense of Jewish identity, combined with deep Zionist convictions, induced both thinkers to divorce antinationalist cosmopolitanism -which they regarded as a hollow, illusionary ideal associated with impossible assimilationist yearnings -from the liberal idea. I conclude by suggesting that, although neither man had ever developed a systematic theoretical framework to deal with the complex interactions between ethno-nationalism, liberal individualism and multiculturalism, Berlin's vision of pluralism provides the foundations for building such a theory, in which liberalism and nationalism become complementary rather than conflicting notions.

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Section: IImentioning

confidence: 88%

Anti-cosmopolitan liberalism: Isaiah Berlin, Jacob Talmon and the dilemma of national identity

Dubnov

2010

Nations and Nationalism

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“…‘Rousseau, and in [Isaiah] Berlin’s writings also Kant and T.H. Green’, writes Dubnov (2008: 224), ‘were all preparing the grounds for totalitarianism because they began the process that eventually allowed the sacrifice of an actual “empirical self” to an abstract “true” or higher self’.…”

Section: Talmon’s ‘Hermeneutics Of Suspicion’ and The Spectre Of Totamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Talmon’s commitment to suspicion and pessimism, for seeing the ‘worst aspect of things’, lead to these sorts of arguments. Interestingly, Talmon would later become much more fervent in his support for Israeli policies and Zionism, finding it ‘harder to distinguish between anti-Semitic prejudices and anti-Israeli expressions’ (Dubnov, 2008: 234).…”

Section: Talmon’s ‘Hermeneutics Of Suspicion’ and The Spectre Of Totamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A pessimistic liberalism: Jacob Talmon’s suspicion and the birth of contemporary political thought

Tatum

2019

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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Discussions of liberalism as a political ideology often focus on the progressive, civilisational, and triumphalist ideologies of liberal thinkers. Scholarly work on liberal empire situates these issues in the context of colonialism, and contemporary discussions of liberal world order devote much intellectual space to optimism about liberalism. Scholars have spent much less time connecting liberalism to deep cynicism and suspicion. This article, in focusing on what I term a ‘pessimistic liberalism’, fills this gap by examining the ways that the spectre of totalitarianism influenced post-war liberal thought. The mid-20th century was a pivotal moment where both liberalism and its critics proceeded to make arguments about politics that began from similar attitudes about the nature of the political: suspicion, cynicism, resignation, and fear. Specifically, the article analyses historian Jacob Talmon’s genealogy of modern leftist thought to illustrate the shift in liberal thinking from its 19th century optimism to its 20th century pessimism and scepticism. Talmon’s engagement with the issues of political messianism, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism represented a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’ ( pace Paul Ricoeur) that critiqued the triumphalism of previous political projects. The article concludes by connecting this project to the broader development of ‘contemporary political thought’ and reflects on pessimism’s place in politics.

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“…'Talmon developed what I call a siege mentality and he was no longer able to distinguish anti-Semitism from anti-Zionism', observed Dubnov. 80 'My country right or wrong' seemed to epitomize Talmon Talmon identified body and soul with the State of Israel, though he had serious reservations concerning the Israeli leadership. One manifestation of his criticism came in his call on the great powers to intervene and impose a settlement.…”

Section: Israel Affairs 387mentioning

confidence: 99%

Middle Eastern intellectual correspondence: Jacob Talmon and Arnold Toynbee revisited

Nachmani

2014

Israel Affairs

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A tale of trees and crooked timbers: Jacob Talmon and Isaiah Berlin on the question of Jewish Nationalism

Abstract: This essay seeks to examine the history of the intellectual comradeship between J.

Cited by 5 publications

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Anti-cosmopolitan liberalism: Isaiah Berlin, Jacob Talmon and the dilemma of national identity

Anti-cosmopolitan liberalism: Isaiah Berlin, Jacob Talmon and the dilemma of national identity

A pessimistic liberalism: Jacob Talmon’s suspicion and the birth of contemporary political thought

Middle Eastern intellectual correspondence: Jacob Talmon and Arnold Toynbee revisited

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