The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin
The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin
List: $12.12 | Sale: $8.48
Club: $6.06

The Hedgehog and the Fox
An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History - Second Edition

Author: Isaiah Berlin, Michael Ignatieff

Narrator: Peter Kenny

Unabridged: 2 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/18/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

This compelling audiobook narrated by Peter Kenny presents Isaiah Berlin's acclaimed essay on Tolstoy and historical understanding "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. 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. 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. One of Berlin's most celebrated works, this extraordinary essay offers profound insights about Tolstoy, historical understanding, and human psychology.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lea on July 31, 2021

A brilliant essay by the late Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin about Tolstoy's philosophy and view of history. Recommended to be accompanied read to War and Peace (on which I'm attempting to write a review for 3 months), especially to the parts of Tolstoy's essay about history. Berlin divides thinker......more

Goodreads review by Leonard on November 11, 2022

Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a monumental, all-encompassing novel. Yet, there is a particular aspect of it that isn’t to everyone’s taste: the philosophical digressions interrupting the flow of the narrative every few chapters in Books III and IV and culminating in the notorious Second Epilogue. One c......more

Goodreads review by Kelly on September 07, 2016

I cannot tell you how delighted I am that I did not discover this book until just this month. I'll give you an overview of this wonderful essay and then explain my personal satisfaction to those who care to stick around afterwards. "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." T......more

Goodreads review by Roy on May 19, 2020

I still remember the day when I finished War and Peace. It was both one of the most triumphant and most perplexing days of my reading life. Imagine me, on a hot summer day, having woken up early to devote the necessary hours to plow through the remaining hundred pages or so of this novel that had so......more

Goodreads review by Jim on February 27, 2010

This is a deeply profound book, which, presumably about Tolstoy's philosophy of history in War and Peace, is actually about the nature of observable reality. In a mere 81 pages, Isaiah Berlin has gone far toward upsetting my apple cart -- for good and all. We all make assumptions about which we are......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List