Quote:
Originally Posted by Someday
Perhaps another bad analogy, I agree. But I think we cling to our own truth, so to speak as if it is the only possible truth. That's what makes this contradictory to begin with. I usually use the analogy of the blind men and the elephant story. This is a better analogy. I like to try and follow this when we are groping after something many have felt but have never seen. |
Sorry, but I'm going to dispute the validity of that analogy too.
The men only feel part of the elephant, the one who feels a tusk doesn't feel what the tusk leads to, i.e. the head, the side, etc. So if he were asked if he could make sure an elephant only consists of very hard-feeling ivory, he couldn't say so. He has only felt the ivory part of the elephant, but can't say that any other report has to be wrong.
Personal experiences by contrast, can be so conflicting that for one to be true, the other must be false. Take some members of a doomsday cult. One of the members (young, in good health) feels he/she should lead as long as possible a life of helping others as much as possible. The cult leader says he has seen that armageddon is upon the world, and they must leave the world through mass suicide before it's too late for their souls. Living a long life of good works and the urgent desire to commit suicide are mutually exclusive.
So I think the blind men and elephant analogy fails because it is about incomplete info while personal experiences can be about contradictory, mutually exclusive 'info'.
greets,
Peter