Hedgehog, the fox, and the magister's pox: mending and minding the misconceived gap between science and the humanities /
Stephen Jay Gould.
- 1st Harvard University Press ed.
- Australia: Vintage, 2003.
- xii, 273 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.;Pbk.
Includes index.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I. The rite and rights of a separating spring II. From paradoxical ages of bacon to swift sweetness and light III. A saga of pluribus and Unum: the power and meaning of true consilience.
The latest book from the most celebrated popular science writer in the world. Gould uses the centuries- old conflict between science and the humanities- between the notion of relying solely on experiment and that of reason and imagination- to delve into burning scientific issues of the past and present.
Completed shortly before his death, this is the last work of science from the most celebrated popular science writer in the world. In characteristic form, Gould weaves the ideas of some of Western society's greatest thinkers, from Bacon to Galileo to E. O. Wilson, with the uncelebrated ideas of lesser- known yet pivotal intellectuals. He uses their ides to undo an assumption born in the seventeenth century and continuing to this day, that science and the humanities stand in opposition. Gould uses the metaphor of the hedgehog- who goes after one thing at a measured pace, systematically investigating all; the fox- skilled at many things, intuitive and fast; and the magister's pox- a censure form the Catholic Church involved in Galileo's downfall: a metaphor which illustrates the different ways of responding to knowledge- in a scientific, humanistic or fearful way. He argues that in fact each would benefit by borrowing from the other.