6/3/2023 0 Comments Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young![]() ![]() 500 BCE, during the lifetime of the Buddha. The Buddhist text Tittha Sutta, Udāna 6.4, Khuddaka Nikaya, contains one of the earliest versions of the story. The parable originated in the ancient Indian subcontinent, from where it has been widely diffused. ![]() The moral of the parable is that humans have a tendency to claim absolute truth based on their limited, subjective experience as they ignore other people's limited, subjective experiences which may be equally true. ![]() In some versions, they come to suspect that the other person is dishonest and they come to blows. They then describe the elephant based on their limited experience and their descriptions of the elephant are different from each other. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant's body, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. The parable of the blind men and an elephant is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and imagine what the elephant is like by touching it. Blind Men Appraising an Elephant by Ohara Donshu, Edo Period (early 19th century), Brooklyn Museum ![]()
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