tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3564064.post111015161190774684..comments2023-07-16T07:03:20.896-04:00Comments on GedankenTravelExperiment: Review of Berlin's The Hedgehog and the Foxkarlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13511491414073382506noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3564064.post-1112789363063295672005-04-06T08:09:00.000-04:002005-04-06T08:09:00.000-04:00Ahh... a fellow Platonist.Ahh... a fellow Platonist.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3564064.post-1112789339982548742005-04-06T08:08:00.000-04:002005-04-06T08:08:00.000-04:00Good timing, I just finished reading it last week....Good timing, I just finished reading it last week. I'm not a Tolstoy fan....I always have the sense when I'm reading him that this preachy old man is trying to fill me with his agenda (which is likely the case with Tolstoy). I also don't like that his characters don't seem to be characters, but symbols of something else which I tend to find really boring. It's typically me that although the book is about Tolstoy's view of history, the things that touched me and I took away from it had nothing to do with Berlin's thesis. However impotent these attempts are to break the world down into categories, I always admire the effort and I thought the hedgehog/fox breakdown was really interesting. People who like to daydream should definitely read this book. People who like to hit hard with analysis and go through the world with a fine tooth comb would probably find it really lacking. It's a bit like Plato. I love Plato, and I sometimes like to think of the world in terms of this vision even though the rational part of my brain tells me it's a lot of beautiful ideas with not a lot to sink my teeth into. Although Bertrand Russell was influenced by Plato and sometimes in the middle of his wonderful atheism these platonic terms crop up and pepper his language. Which I love about Bertrand, it makes him beautiful.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com