Reading Isaiah Berlin

This course is designed to provide opportunity for you to improve your English comprehension skills and at the same time to get familiar with some important academic topics. You are required to peruse part of the text before each class, and to summarize and discuss its content in the classroom. During the first semester, the text will be an academic essay, “Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Herder, and Hamann,” in which the author, Isaiah Berlin, expounds on the ideas of three Counter-Enlightenment thinkers. This essay is divided into three chapters, each dealing with Vico, Herder, and Hamann, respectively. It is upon the chapter on Vico that our discussion will mainly focus.

Berlin's English is so sophisticated, and so far from spoken language, that those who have had little experience with academic materials may at first find it a little perplexing. However, as is always the case with excellent writers, his words contain few ambiguities. So, once you have got accustomed to his complex style, it will be easy for you to follow his arguments, whether you concur with his conclusion or not. I hope that, through the intensive reading of Berlin's text, you will get immune to academic English, and become able to read profound books by yourselves.

The first class: 5/13

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