---
description: Gaddis merges Fitzgerald's 1936 formulation with Berlin's hedgehog-fox to define the cognitive requirement for grand strategy -- simultaneously holding unlimited aspirations AND awareness of limited means without paralysis
type: claim
domain: grand-strategy
created: 2026-03-05
confidence: likely
source: "F. Scott Fitzgerald 1936, John Lewis Gaddis 'On Grand Strategy' 2018"
tradition: "Grand strategy, cognitive science"
---

# Fitzgeralds first-rate intelligence test requires holding two opposing ideas simultaneously which is the cognitive prerequisite for grand strategy

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in 1936: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." Gaddis makes this the operational definition of strategic intelligence. Every grand strategic challenge demands holding contradictions:

- Unlimited aspirations AND awareness of limited capabilities
- Hedgehog conviction about direction AND fox awareness of terrain
- Moral commitment AND practical necessity (Augustine AND Machiavelli)
- The need to plan AND the certainty that plans will break
- Long-term vision AND short-term pragmatism

Gaddis evaluates every historical figure in "On Grand Strategy" against Fitzgerald's test. Xerxes failed by holding only aspirations -- he ignored all concerns in pursuit of his grand design. His uncle Artabanus failed by holding only concerns -- paralyzed by every possible contingency. "Taking the best from contradictory approaches while rejecting the worst: precisely the compromise that Xerxes and Artabanus failed to reach twenty-four centuries earlier."

Lincoln passed the test supremely. His compass pointed unshakably toward preserving the Union and ending slavery, but his tactics were fluid, pragmatic, politically dexterous. He held the contradiction between moral absolutism (slavery is wrong) and political realism (emancipation requires a military necessity argument) without either pole collapsing. Since [[effective grand strategists combine hedgehog direction with fox adaptability because neither pure conviction nor pure flexibility succeeds alone]], Fitzgerald's test IS the cognitive description of what the hedgehog-fox synthesis requires.

The connection to since [[collective intelligence within a purpose-driven community faces a structural tension because shared worldview correlates errors while shared purpose enables coordination]] is direct: the LivingIP project must hold the opposing ideas that (a) shared purpose is necessary for coordination AND (b) shared worldview produces correlated errors. Both are true simultaneously. The system design must function despite this contradiction, not resolve it. Since [[axioms framed as processes absorb new information while axioms framed as conclusions create coherence crises]], framing TeleoHumanity's axioms as processes rather than conclusions is the architectural expression of Fitzgerald's test -- holding direction while remaining open to revision.

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Relevant Notes:
- [[effective grand strategists combine hedgehog direction with fox adaptability because neither pure conviction nor pure flexibility succeeds alone]] -- the hedgehog-fox synthesis IS Fitzgerald's test applied to strategic leadership
- [[collective intelligence within a purpose-driven community faces a structural tension because shared worldview correlates errors while shared purpose enables coordination]] -- LivingIP's central contradiction that must be held, not resolved
- [[axioms framed as processes absorb new information while axioms framed as conclusions create coherence crises]] -- process-framed axioms as architectural expression of Fitzgerald's test
- [[grand strategy aligns unlimited aspirations with limited capabilities through proximate objectives]] -- the primary pair of opposing ideas that grand strategy holds
- [[the manifesto requires deliberate design but claims emergence is how intelligence works]] -- another contradiction that must be held, not resolved

Topics:
- [[civilizational foundations]]
- [[attractor dynamics]]
