Berlin uses the hedgehog-fox idea to divide writers and thinkers into two categories: single-minded hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of one, defining idea, and pluralistic foxes, who draw on a wide variety of experiences and for whom the world cannot be boiled down to a single idea. Nevertheless, it was this fragment of his ancient poetry, “a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog one important thing” that underpins Berlin’s famous, often controversial, essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox. It’s a long way from the seventh century BC and the Greek poet Archilochus to a philosophical tract written by philosopher, Isiah Berlin, in 1950s Britain. It’s funny how even ancient ideas can be given new lease of life. How cultivating depth and breadth is key for the age of agile.
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