Do You Think Like a Fox or a Hedgehog? | Book Insights on The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin

*In later life, Isaiah Berlin regretted calling his essay The Hedgehog and the Fox, but it’s an undoubtedly intriguing title. 

*While it investigates the two ways of approaching knowledge, that of the fox who ‘knows many things’ and the hedgehog who ‘knows one big thing’ – outlining what would become a key principle of modern cultural theory – the essay’s real subject matter is the Leo Tolstoy’s view of history. 

*Berlin had studied his fellow Russian Tolstoy’s work (he had also translated Russian literature), and viewed Tolstoy as a first-rate philosopher. In analysing War and Peace, and keeping in mind the aforementioned wildlife imagery, he reveals the fundamental tension between the two approaches. 

*This tension is at the heart of Tolstoy’s philosophy: the hedgehog-like yearning for a unifying Truth despite the fox-like acceptance of everyday life in all its infinite and unknowable variety.

Theme 1: Folly & Conceit of History - 0:29

Theme 2: Free Will & Rationality - 7:19

Theme 3: Two Levels of Reality - 15:21

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HEAR THE FULL INTERVIEWS MENTIONED IN TODAYS' EPISODE HERE:

“Freedom and Its Betrayal: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1952).” Freedom and Its Betrayal: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1952) | University of Oxford Podcasts - Audio and Video Lectures, podcasts.ox.ac.uk/freedom-and-its-betrayal-jean-jacques-rousseau-1952.

Intellect, Manufacturing. “Isaiah Berlin Interview on Why Philosophy Matters (1976).” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vib2rqJKS08

Full Title: The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History

Year of Publication: 1953

Book Author: Isaiah Berlin

To purchase the complete edition of this book click here: https://tinyurl.com/3mmj62d3

Book Insight Writer: Tom Butler-Bowden

Editor: Tom Butler-Bowden

Producer: Daniel Gonzalez

Production Manager: Karin Richey

Curator: Tom Butler-Bowden

Narrator: Elliott Schiff