I’m working on another poster for Dr. Browne. (see my first one here) It is based on an analogy about a Hedgehog and a Fox by Sir Isaiah Berlin (who, incidentally, also is the progenitor of one of my favorite ideas, the idea of “positive liberty” and “negative liberty”)*.

The hedgehog and fox analogy is fairly simply: Berlin’s fox is a creature who knows something about an expansive range of subject matter- a generalist. Alternatively, the Berlinian hedgehog knows a great deal about one specific thing- a specialist.

So in trying to create an image to represent this idea, I made several doodles of hedgehogs and foxes… but I ended up with the following two characters. I’m not sure if I’ll use them, but they’ve been fun to make.

Here they are:

Agent Hedgehog sees extremely far through a tiny narrow scope.
Agent Fox cannot see as far, but is resourceful in any environment.

Any suggestions?

-Tom

* The distinction of “positive liberty” and “negative liberty” is rarely made in the U.S.- But I find it tremendously important. Essentially, it binds liberty (or freedom) with means.
In other words, being free doesn’t amount to much unless you also have the tools to accomplish what you wish. Many phrase the distinction like this:

Negative Freedom is Freedom From
Positive Freedom is Freedom To

Example: We have the Negative Freedom to go to Hawaii on vacation. There is no law preventing us from flying to Hawaii.

If we had the Positive Freedom to go to Hawaii, the government (or someone) would provide us with airfare, plan the trip, get hotels, etc..

For instance, public education is a Positive Freedom. Not only are there no laws preventing education- there is a school in every area, and it is free of charge.

Now, there is certainly a gradient present here. This is not a case of “either/or”. Pos/Neg liberty exists on a scale.