The Fox and The Hedgehog
"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."
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Isaiah Berlin begins his oft-quoted essay "The Hedgehog and the Fox" with the above quote by Archilochus, and then spends the next sixty-odd pages using that quote to explain his theory of thinkers. Essentially, hedgehogs have one single idea anchoring their conception of the world. Examples listed by Berlin include Plato, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Dostoevsky. Foxes do not have that central anchoring vision, and indeed often reject the idea of a central vision. Examples listed by Berlin include Aristotle, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Pushkin. Neither way of thinking is necessarily better, though foxes are much more common these days among intellectuals.
We can think of more examples pretty easily. Heidegger was definitely a hedgehog. Nate Silver is a self-proclaimed fox. Einstein was probably a hedgehog.
There are also a number of people who cross categories. Berlin discusses Tolstoy, who is a fox that aspires to be a hedgehog. On the other hand, it makes sense to call Foucault a hedgehog that aspires to be a fox. Terry Pratchett is a hedgehog pretending to be a fox.
I'm definitely a fox- can't hold still on a topic for long at all. Know which you are? Post in the comments, or give some more examples of foxes and hedgehogs!
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Hedgehog, I suppose. Either something interests me, or it does not, and when I'm in, I'm really in.
Do you have a central vision anchoring what interests you, though?
Most definitely. Unfortunately, it is something that is better not discussed....
Hedgehog, then!
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Amazing and original blog...
Thanks!
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The fox looks like it has a bad hind leg. Its dangerous for fox to be roaming around these days.
Can't really tell.
Amazing fact. And Orginal blog
Wow !! The fox..... Nice post
I am seriously ADD. does that have any bearing on the topic at hand?
It would seem to predispose you toward being a fox.
Looks pretty much like I'm a hedgehog. Even when I try to be foxy it still all tends to get magnetized toward and unified under a central vision.