![]() Yet when Berlin reaches the case of Tolstoy, he finds a fox by nature, but a hedgehog by conviction a duality which holds the key to understanding Tolstoy’s work, illuminating a paradox of his philosophy of history and showing why he was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics. This fragment of Archilochus, which gives this book its title, describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlins masterly essay on Tolstoy. It can be applied to the greatest creative minds: Dante, Ibsen and Proust are hedgehogs, while Shakespeare, Aristotle and Joyce are foxes. The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.įor Isaiah Berlin, there is a fundamental distinction in mankind: those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things – foxes – and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing system – hedgehogs. ![]() Exactly what good critical writing should be’ Max Beloff, Guardian The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoys View of History - Second Edition ISAIAH BERLIN Edited by Henry Hardy Foreword by Michael Ignatieff. ![]() ![]() ![]() The Hedgehog And The Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History, With an Introduction by Michael Ignatieff (W&N Essentials) Isaiah Berlin. ‘When reading Isaiah Berlin we breathe an altogether different air’ New York Review of Books The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History - Second Edition. ![]()
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