"The view that the truth is one and undivided, and the same for all men everywhere at all times, whether one finds it in the pronouncements of sacred books, traditional wisdom, the authority of churches, democratic majorities, observation and experiment conducted by qualified experts, or the convictions of simple folks uncorrupted by civilisation---this view, in one form or another, is central to western thought, which stems from Plato and his disciples."
Isaiah Berlin was a Russian-born British philosopher and historian of ideas known for his defense of liberalism and value pluralism. Born in Riga on 1909-06-06, he became influential through essays such as Two Concepts of Liberty and through his work on intellectual history. He died in Oxford on 1997-11-05.