Book description
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.' This
fragment of Archilochus, which gives this book its title, describes the
central thesis of Isaiah Berlin's masterly essay on Tolstoy. There have
been various interpretations of Archilochus' fragment; Isaiah Berlin has
simply used it, without implying anything about the true meaning of the
words, to outline a fundamental distinction that exists in mankind,
between those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things
(foxes) and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing
system (hedgehogs). When applied to Tolstoy, the image illuminates a
paradox of his philosophy of history, and shows why he was frequently
misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics. Tolstoy was by nature a
fox, but he believed in being a hedgehog. Sir Isaiah Berlin OM spent
the whole of his professional life at Oxford, as a Fellow of All Souls
College, a Fellow of New College, Chichele Professor of Social and
Political theory and first President of Wolfson College. He is the
author of many books and was President of the British Academy from 1974
until 1978. He died in 1997.
