The fox, said the old Greek poet, knows many things, but the hedgehog only one big thing. Out of Tolstoy's historical theory but also finds in it an indispensable key to the complex and divided personality of the great Russian novelist. In this brilliant essay he not only succeeds in making very good sense However, Isaiah Berlin-lecturer in philosophyĪt Oxford and famous as a scholar, diplomatist and conversationalist in at least two continents-has chosen to subject these historical passages to careful attention. Ost of us, I imagine, reading "War and Peace" tend to skim over the long disquisitions on history as rather tedious breaks in a marvelouslyĮxciting story, and nearly all critics hitherto have given official sanction to this habit by attempting to prove that these historical essays are an unnecessary blemish upon a great work of art.
This new edition features a revised text that supplants all previous versions, English translations of the many passages in foreign languages, a new foreword in which Berlin biographer Michael Ignatieff explains the enduring appeal of Berlin’s essay, and a new appendix that provides rich context, including excerpts from reviews and Berlin’s letters, as well as a startling new interpretation of Archilochus’s epigram.FebruSharp Eyes for the Multiple Things By WILLIAM BARRETT One of Berlin’s most celebrated works, this extraordinary essay offers profound insights about Tolstoy, historical understanding, and human psychology. Applied to Tolstoy, the saying illuminates a paradox that helps explain his philosophy of history: Tolstoy was a fox, but believed in being a hedgehog. Although there have been many interpretations of the adage, Berlin uses it to mark a fundamental distinction between human beings who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things and those who relate everything to a central, all-embracing system. “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” This ancient Greek aphorism, preserved in a fragment from the poet Archilochus, describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlin’s masterly essay on Leo Tolstoy and the philosophy of history, the subject of the epilogue to War and Peace.
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