Blind Men Describing An Elephant
Since the men have never encountered an elephant they grope about seeking to understand and describe this new phenomenon.
Blind men describing an elephant. The blind men stepped forward to touch the creature that was the subject of so many arguments. One grasps the trunk and concludes it is a snake. To the king s surprise the blind men cannot agree with each others interpretations of the elephant.
The blind men and the elephant is a poem by john godfrey saxe which is based on an indian fable कह न about 6 blind men and the elephant. Pegasus communications president ginny wiley has a small sculpture of an elephant on her desk to remind her of how easy it is to be seduced by the. There are four blind men who discover an elephant.
Poem it was six men of indostan to learning much inclined who went to see the elephant though all of them were blind that each by observation might satisfy his mind the first approached the elephant and happening to fall against his. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant s body but only one part such as the side or the tusk. Another explores one of the elephant s legs and describes it as a tree.
It must be very powerful the second blind man put his hand on the elephant s limber trunk. The parable of the blind men and an elephant originated in the ancient indian subcontinent from where it has been widely diffused it is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and conceptualize what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man after touching different parts of the elephant describes it as a plow a granary a winnowing basket etc.
The simple reason is that our sensory perceptions and life experiences can lead to limited access and overreaching misinterpretations. The parable of the blind men and the elephant illustrates how our individual perceptions what peter senge calls our mental models can lead to miscommunication and conflict. An elephant is smooth and solid like a wall he declared.
The first blind man reached out and touched the side of the huge animal. The analogy is this.
