13/04/2023
The Blind Men and the Elephant
Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, “Hey, there is an elephant in the village today. They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided,
“Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway.” All of them went where the elephant was and everyone touched the elephant.
“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg.”
“Oh no! It is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail.
“Oh no! It is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
“It is like a big hand fan,” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
“It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
“It is like a solid pipe,” said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.
They began to argue about the elephant and every one of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, “What is the matter? They said, “We cannot agree to what the elephant is like.
Each of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, “All of you are right. The reason every one of you was telling it differently is because each one of you touched a different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all of those features what you all said.”
“Oh!” everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.*
The moral of the story is that truth is relative to one's own perspective, and because truth is relative, we should respect the opinions of others. After all, their view of reality is based on a different viewpoint than our own.
To moral relativists, morality can be fluid. What is considered good today may be considered evil tomorrow, and what is considered evil today may be considered good tomorrow.
Right and wrong, g