On the Status of Beneits and Values in the Context of the Liberal heory. Isaiah Berlin’s Ethical Realism

Article

Abstract

[In Russian]

The topic of the article is the problem of the status of values in the context of the liberal theory. Agonical liberalism (pluralism) of Isaiah Berlin is taken as the «model» position to interpret and evaluate the disposition as a whole. From the aspect of the values theory, Berlin’s pluralism, which in this case can also be interpreted as an «internal» version of ethical realism, challenges his principal opponent, namely, ethical monism, according to which there is or there must exist a single privileged and rationally grounded value or an ethical code. Ethical realism should also be distinguished from perspectivism or relativism, which affirms that the «objectivity» of values and norms of behavior are secured by the fact of their acceptance in a community. Berlin’s ethical realism suggests that moral elements guiding human practice and conflicting with one another exist as «independent» entities that are subject to assertions about their validity, inaccuracy or falseness.