![]() these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long, each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong, though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong. The remaining three blind men declare the elephant as, respectively, a tree trunk (based on the leg), a fan (based on the ear), and a rope (based on the tail). ![]() The third feels the squirming trunk in his hands and proclaims the elephant to be a snake. The first blind man runs into the elephant's “sturdy side” and declares the animal a “wall.” The second feels the elephant's tusk “so very round and smooth and sharp” and pronounces the elephant to be a spear. ![]() In this parable, six blind scholars attempt to describe the outward appearance (or “phenotype”) of an elephant. Written by American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) in the mid-nineteenth century, “The Blind Men and the Elephant” is the relatively contemporary version of a parable that traces its roots back to the Asian subcontinent and Jainism, thought to be the religious precursor to Buddhism ( Saxe 2005). ![]() ![]() “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.” ![]()
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