The Blind Men And The Elephant - 1016 Words

The Blind Men and the Elephant explain the story of six blind men who each have a different viewpoint on an elephant’s physical appearance. At first, each of the six blind men explain their reasoning in a self-assured way without concurring towards one another’s theory. Although their perspectives are distinct, their ideas are not entirely wrong. I believe this story tells us that within our society, our world is surrounded by cultural differences and languages we may not either understand or agree upon. However, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t listen to their ideas. Furthermore, this story exemplifies how we act throughout our daily lives. People are the most boastful when ignorance is present; when we don’t have all of the information. The six men lacked the sense of sight and yet they each had somewhat knowledge about an elephant. Sociological imagination is the process of gaining information through the perspective of others and incorporating those thoughts. Moreover, this concept allowed them to imagine their own theory about what an elephant looks like. The villager’s tales granted them the opportunity to see more out than what they thought they could with their own eyes. â€Å"Information often dominates their attention and overwhelms their capacities to assimilate it. It is not only the skills of reason that they need although their struggles to acquire these often exhaust their limited moral energy.†(Mills, 1959). In this part of Mills excerpt, he identifies with theShow MoreRelatedSummary Of Six Blind Men And The Elephant1932 Words   |  8 PagesQuestion 1: â€Å"Six Blind Men and the E lephant† Parable. The parable of the six blind men and the elephant can be likened to an organization where each person perceives his or her role in a different way. Individual perceptions are useful as long as there is one aligning goal or mission statement that each person can derive meaning and purpose. The trait approach in Chapter Two suggests that people are born with qualities that make them a leader or a follower. In the story of the six blind men, each of theseRead MoreAnalysis Of Elephant In The Village Of The Blind772 Words   |  4 Pages‘comparison, illustration, analogy’. The two thousand years old Buddhist story â€Å"The Elephant in the Village of the Blind’ portraying simple story, demonstrating universal moral, and using symbols and analogy is the evident representative of the parable. To start with, the narrative in â€Å"The Elephant in the Village of the Blind† is very simple; the main character is an elephant which is being examined by the blind people of the village. The story has little descriptions, adjectives, or embellishmentsRead More Absolute Essay1017 Words   |  5 Pages 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 thatRead MoreEssay Harper1467 Words   |  6 Pagesshows a solution or choice to the problem. In Leon Weiseltier’s â€Å"The Democratic thinker† he shows the obligation that people have. â€Å"The Blind Men and the Elephant† shows conflict between knowledge and understanding. â€Å"The Three Questions† by Leo Tolstoy also shows conflict between knowledge and understanding but in a different way than the blind men and the elephant does. â€Å"Education as Maturity† by H.A Overstreet shows the process. Finally Wag the Dog by Barry Levinson shows the dangers of criticalRead MoreMy First Co Curricular Event At Westminster College901 Words   |  4 Pagesreadings, but other things I encounter with an open mind. An example of text can relate to this idea. One of which is the in the Blind Man and the Elephant and that the men began to argue what they perceived the elephant to be (Parable of the Blind Man and th e Elephant pg.24). They were arguing what the elephant was because they couldn’t change their mind or look at the elephant from a different point of view. If I get anything out of inquiry, I want it to be that I can think more openly and be able toRead MoreThe Challenge Of Religious Diversity1379 Words   |  6 PagesDiversity in The Twentieth Century There are four blind men who discover an elephant. Since the men have never encountered an elephant, they analyze, seeking to understand and describe this new anomaly. One man grasps at the trunk and concludes it is a snake. Another one examines the elephant s tail and announces that it’s a rope. A third finds one of the elephant s legs and describes it as a tree. And the fourth blind man, after exploring the elephant s side, concludes that it is, after all, a wallRead MoreCognitive Science : The Scientific Study Of The Mind1193 Words   |  5 Pagesis the story of five blind men who staggers upon an elephant. One man feels the tusk and thinks he is a huge carrot. A second man feels the ears and thinks the object is a big fan (Friedenberg and Silverman, 2012). The third feels the trunk and declares it is a pestle. The fourth touches the leg and believes it is a mortar (Friedenberg and Silverman, 2012). The fifth touches the tail and believes it is a rope. All five men are wro ng each has examined one aspect of the elephant if they had conferredRead MoreThe Destructive Power of Peer Pressure Essay1408 Words   |  6 Pages Peer pressure and acts of mass blind obedience are all too common occurrences in our everyday society. A person, who under any other circumstances would never act in such a way, will commit unthinkable acts when backed by a single person or even worse, a large mass of individuals. It’s almost always destructive, and the person or persons involved usually always end up feeling regretful and bewildered by their actions. When thinking about group peer pressure, there are several otherRead More Comparing Male and Female Relationships in Cat in The Rain and Hills Like White Elephants by Hemingway1039 Words   |  5 PagesComparing Male and Female Relationships in Cat in The Rain and Hills Like White Elephants by Hemingway This relationship is examined closely in two short stories. The stories, Cat in The Rain, and Hills Like White Elephants, both show a man and a woman in what seems to be a quiet and passive moment. However in both stories, Hemingway carefully uses imagery and subtlety to convey to the reader that the relationship in the story is flawed, and is quite clearly dysfunctional. Both male charactersRead MoreReligious Exclusivity And Religious Moralism988 Words   |  4 Pagessupport religious pluralism, to the point of even being agreeable with John Hicks hypothesis, he maintains an exclusivist viewpoint regarding Buddhism. According to John Hick’s hypothesis, the convergence of the religions presented in all societies by men of different faith of common grounds may lead to rendering any faith obsolete (Hicks, 639). John Hick’s however, does not believe that all the religions will worship in the same manner or agree with each other’s sets of belief but rather that a prevalent