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 from the Catholic Church involved in Galileo's downfall: to illustrate 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.