On Hedgehogs, Koalas, and Other Animals
Outside academia, Isaiah Berlin is probably best known for his distinction between โfoxesโ and โhedgehogsโ based on Archilochus saying that โthe fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thingโ. When I first encountered a reference to this distinction I assumed that it had something to do with broad versus narrow knowledge or learning, with the Renaissance/โEnlightenment ideal of the homo universalis (or polymath) versus the academic (hyper-) specialist, or with Thomas Aquinasโs fear of โa man of one bookโ (homo unius libri), that is, someone who knows one book/โthing really well, but doesnโt know much else. I...