ABSTRACT

Berlin (1993) famously used this poetic fragment in an essay on Tolstoy, suggesting that some authors (foxes) explore a variety of perspectives, whereas others (the hedgehogs) connect everything to a solitary, focused idea. In Berlin’s view, Tolstoy very much wanted to be a hedgehog, but given his perceptive gifts, he really was more of a fox. Due to training and erudition, most psychologists aspire to be hedgehogs, that is, specialists, at what they do. It is also true that generalists are in less demand, so contemporary psychology produces few foxes these days.