“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 ...
“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.
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.
作者简介
· · · · · ·
Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) was one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. A fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, he was the author of many books, including Against the Current, The Crooked Timber of Humanity, and The Roots of Romanticism (all Princeton).
Henry Hardy, a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is one of Isaiah Berlin's literary trustees. He has edited...
Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) was one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. A fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, he was the author of many books, including Against the Current, The Crooked Timber of Humanity, and The Roots of Romanticism (all Princeton).
Henry Hardy, a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is one of Isaiah Berlin's literary trustees. He has edited several other volumes by Berlin, and is currently preparing Berlin's letters and remaining unpublished writings for publication.
There is a particularly vivid simile in which the great man is likened to the ram whom the shepherd is fattening for slaughter.Because the ram duly grows fatter, and perhaps is used as a bell-wether for the rest of the flock, he may easily imagine that he is the leader of the flock, and that the other sheep go where they go solely in obedience to his will. He thinks this and the flock may think it too. Nevertheless the purpose of his selection is not the role he believes himself to play, but slaughter—a purpose conceived by beings whose aims neither he nor the other sheep can fathom. (查看原文)
Freedom of the will is an illusion which cannot be shaken off, but, as great philosophers have said, it is an illusion nevertheless, and it derives solely from ignorance of true causes. The more we know about the circumstances of an act, the farther away from us the act is in time, the more difficult it is to think away its consequences; the more solidly embedded a fact is in the actual world in which we live, the less we can imagine how things might have turned out if something different had happened. For by now it seems inevitable: to think otherwise would upset too much of our world oder. (查看原文)
Princeton University Press, 2013 Editon(共12册)，
这套丛书还有
《The Crooked Timber of Humanity》《Against the Current》《The Power of Ideas》《Concepts and Categories》《Freedom and Its Betrayal》
等
。
喜欢读"The Hedgehog and the Fox"的人也喜欢的电子书
· · · · · ·
看似是在讨论“刺猬与狐狸”，即一元中心论和自由多元论的提喻，实则是在讨论历史哲学；看似是在讨论历史哲学，实际上还是回到了原点——探寻真理，即世界的本质。
一句话总结：We are part of a larger scheme of things than we can understand.
所以，这个“东西”无法从历史的“flow”中分离出，只能与“它”和平相处。
托尔斯泰认为我们的知识、经验...看似是在讨论“刺猬与狐狸”，即一元中心论和自由多元论的提喻，实则是在讨论历史哲学；看似是在讨论历史哲学，实际上还是回到了原点——探寻真理，即世界的本质。
一句话总结：We are part of a larger scheme of things than we can understand.
所以，这个“东西”无法从历史的“flow”中分离出，只能与“它”和平相处。
托尔斯泰认为我们的知识、经验并不会带我们走向真正的理解，它们只是碎片的信息积累。
因为“它”不是用有限的、任意一套概念和规则定义的。
我们对事实及其联系的认识越充分就越难设想出别的选择。我们用来构想和描述世界的术语范畴越清晰、越精确，我们的世界结构就越固定，我们的行为就越显得不自由。所有的想象力都止步于某个地方。(展开)
0 有用 龙量角器 2025-02-06 02:45:34 山西
我喜欢
0 有用 宝宝TWO 2018-04-28 20:32:04
对我来说太深了
0 有用 KaSa(重复存在) 2023-10-30 21:51:07 辽宁
看似是在讨论“刺猬与狐狸”，即一元中心论和自由多元论的提喻，实则是在讨论历史哲学；看似是在讨论历史哲学，实际上还是回到了原点——探寻真理，即世界的本质。 一句话总结：We are part of a larger scheme of things than we can understand. 所以，这个“东西”无法从历史的“flow”中分离出，只能与“它”和平相处。 托尔斯泰认为我们的知识、经验... 看似是在讨论“刺猬与狐狸”，即一元中心论和自由多元论的提喻，实则是在讨论历史哲学；看似是在讨论历史哲学，实际上还是回到了原点——探寻真理，即世界的本质。 一句话总结：We are part of a larger scheme of things than we can understand. 所以，这个“东西”无法从历史的“flow”中分离出，只能与“它”和平相处。 托尔斯泰认为我们的知识、经验并不会带我们走向真正的理解，它们只是碎片的信息积累。 因为“它”不是用有限的、任意一套概念和规则定义的。 我们对事实及其联系的认识越充分就越难设想出别的选择。我们用来构想和描述世界的术语范畴越清晰、越精确，我们的世界结构就越固定，我们的行为就越显得不自由。所有的想象力都止步于某个地方。 (展开)
1 有用 榆杉子 2024-05-25 23:58:47 英国
读得很愉悦，但至少能删减一半篇幅。伯林的文笔和叙事（铺展理论的能力）上佳，前半部分对于《战争与和平》的文学批评也颇为精彩，但明明很简单的意思讲得过于反复，给人一直念咒般复读的感觉。后半部分将托尔斯泰与Maistre的并列不那么convincing，而且实在太长了，不过至少展现了一些历史学家应有的考据能力———这是后期作为喉舌功成名就的伯林不屑去做的基本功了
0 有用 路德维希 2014-08-05 15:31:20
思想史家柏林对托尔斯泰小说《战争与和平》中的一些历史哲学主题做了阐发，并对托翁的总体思想倾向做了有意思的归类。柏林的英文和那个时代受过最好教育的人一样，流畅、漂亮。但个人感觉稍嫌卖弄，并且在关键点上语焉不详。