An elephant was brought to a group of blind
men who had never encountered such an animal before.
One felt a leg and reported that an elephant is a great living
pillar. Another felt the trunk and reported that an elephant
is a great snake. Another felt a tusk and reported that an
elephant is like a sharp ploughshare. And so on. And then
they all quarreled together, each claiming that his own
account was the truth and therefore all the others false
(traditional parable). None of the accounts that the blind
men made about the nature of the elephant are absolute
truths, nor are the accounts false. An absolute truth, or one
that is true for all, can not be achieved because of the
constant motion of circumstances of who said it, to whom,
when, where, why, and how it was said. Instead of
absolute truths, the concepts or beliefs that the blind men
claim are viewpoints that each one clarifies the nature of the
elephant. Everybody has learned to see things from his or
her own......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 908
Approximate Pages: 4 (260 words per double-spaced page) |