The Hedgehog, the Fox and the Magister's Pox

Mending and Minding the Misconceived Gap Between Science and the Humanities.

Completed shortly before his death, this is the last work of science from the most celebrated popular science writer on the world. In characteristic form, Gould weaves the ideas of some of Wester society's greatest thinkers, from Bacon to Galileo to EO Wilson, with uncelebrated ideas of lesser-known yet pivotal intellectuals. He uses their ideas to undo an assumption born in the seventeenth century and continuing to this day, that science and 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 each other.