Comments on: Was Isaiah Berlin a Crooked Timber Merchant?

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 21:01:31 +0000

Comment on this seems superfluous: “A BRITISH university is under police investigation in Israel over a multimillion-pound scam in which fake degrees were awarded to thousands of government employees. Teachers, police, army officers and senior civil servants were among 5,500 people who paid for fictitious qualifications from the University of Humberside. “Four managers of the university’s operation in Israel have been arrested and the country’s fraud squad officers said yesterday that at least one member of staff in Britain was involved in the fraud. . . ” – from: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3561-973012,00.html

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Sat, 03 Jul 2004 00:08:22 +0000

“Somehow, much as I like both Emma Thompson and Isaiah Berlin, I can’t see the former doing a very credible impersonation of the latter.” Oh. Huh. Darn – I guess you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that. Probably the wrong kind of accent, for instance. Shucks. I should have realized. Thanks for the help!

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 14:32:26 +0000

Somehow, much as I like both Emma Thompson and Isaiah Berlin, I can’t see the former doing a very credible impersonation of the latter … but perhaps I’m underestimating her thesping skills. I didn’t find the hoax terribly funny, myself, but I did find the fact that some people weren’t sure if it was true or not hilarious. (I, by the way, have a bridge in Brooklyn that’s for sale, if any of you is interested). (In the real world, by the way, Berlin didn’t like everybody, as his recently published letters from the 1930s show, and didn’t start groping towards value pluralism until later [though he did advance something resembling pluralism, under the influence of Aristotle, in 1931).

By: q

Fri, 02 Jul 2004 04:19:14 +0000

Good story, I almost wish it was true! Some of the smartest and most powerful people I have met were very crooked. Maybe we need to maintain the illusion of purity in order to inspire the children – for the sake of society and harmony. Of particular interest to me is how many academics in “reputable” institutions will award degrees and PHDs to sub-standard students, simply because the academic sub-environment itself is sub-standard. Let’s take Oxford University as an example: how many people awarded qualifications by Oxford University do not “deserve” those qualifications? I am sure that someone at Oxford would be able to think of areas where assessment might be weaker than others. How many institutions will simply make awards effectively/merely for turning up … if you have a poor student, do you fail him, or simply award him the bottom pass-rate? If you have a poor student, do you ever add a point because you like him? Could you honestly answer that question in a public forum, or would honesty be impossible as it might lead to unpleasant consequences?

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 01:58:12 +0000

Well I thought you were flat-out joking throughout, so that just goes to show. “Crooked Timber Merchant” Ivory – starring Emma Thompson as Isaiah and Simon Callow as the Pope.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 01:19:31 +0000

Kieran falls for this obvious hoax Hey, give me a break. Maybe I was willing to believe it, but the last paragraph of my post isn’t exactly awash in credulity: Can all this be true? Am I just being wound up? … I really, really need to read more detailed original reporting on this story, not just quotes at a few removes. Anyone got any news items to link to?

By: will

will — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 00:49:16 +0000

I think some of us are all too ready to believe dirt about Isaiah Berlin, myself included.

By: hmmm

hmmm — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 23:23:06 +0000

OK, let me get this straight. Kieran falls for this obvious hoax (unless of course his falling for it is all part of some bigger online perfromance art hoax) And the day before Ted M posts that he ’s leaning toward the idea that “the Administration veto(ed) plans to attack the terrorist Zarqawi, or his base in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, prior to the beginning of Gulf War II, because the presence of a genuine terrorist in Iraq was too useful for their case to give up.” And Henry accuses Glenn Reynolds of promoting conspiracy theories. Really, who’s lapping up all the dubiously source rumours now??? What can I say other than hmmm….

By: Scorpio

Scorpio — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 23:09:19 +0000

Hey, the Vatican had the backbone to say that Catholics could vote for pro-choice candidates. Folks at Bob Jones do not have that kind of spine. Scorpio Eccentricity

By: a different chris

a different chris — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 22:32:09 +0000

You guys think you were a bit confused by this? I read the title as Irving Berlin and went quite deep into it before some of the most massive cognitive dissonance I’ve ever experienced set in. (Wanders off whistling show tunes…)

By: Zizka

Zizka — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 20:58:37 +0000

Karl Popper too—Oxford by way of fucking New Zealand and Austria, or whatever. Yeah, sure. Wittgenstein should have thumped him good. None of those centrist sumbitches are any damn good at all.

By: David

David — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 20:24:02 +0000

What’s the proper punishment for foisting a hoax upon us? Translating the collected works of Isaiah Berlin into Swahili?

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 19:51:44 +0000

““…a one-page essay he wrote describing his “life experience” as a “a real pluralist” who “likes everyone”?” Yeah, that’s my favorite part. Made me fall about.

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 19:41:13 +0000

God damn it! I got an error message when I hit post – so I did NOT hit post again, I went to the front page and from there back to this page where my post was NOT and only THEN reposted it – and look what I get. Well I’m sorry. But the stupid thing seems to have decided to trick us into posting twice.

By: Steady Eddie

Steady Eddie — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 19:41:10 +0000

People! Of course it’s a joke. “…a one-page essay he wrote describing his “life experience” as a “a real pluralist” who “likes everyone”? Really, now! Does it have to appear in the Onion first?