How can a poem about six blind men teach us to see more clearly?
Subject: Naive Realism, Hasty Generalization, and the Fallacy of Composition - “The Blind Men and the Elephant”
Event: Birthday of John Godfrey Saxe, 1816
A Beethoven string quartet is truly, as someone has said, a scraping of horses’ tails on cats’ bowels, and may be exhaustively described in such terms; but the application of this description in no way precludes the simultaneous applicability of an entirely different mode of description. -William James
Today is the birthday of the American poet John Godfrey Saxe, who was born in 1816 in Highgate, Vermont. In addition to being a poet, Saxe was also a lawyer and a politician. He served as Vermont’s attorney general and twice ran unsuccessfully as governor of his home state.
As a lawyer, Saxe is known for his famous simile that illustrates the contrast between the unsightly, messy process of watching laws being made versus the product, which is usually more appetizing:
Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.
Saxe is better known, however, for a poem he wrote in 1873 based on an Indian parable about six blind men who encounter an elephant. Read the poem, and see if you can identify its lessons about how we perceive and how we interpret our world:
Image by Mote Oo Education from Pixabay
The Blind Men and the Elephant
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.
The first approached the elephant, and, happening to fall,
against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the elephant, is nothing but a wall!"
The second feeling of the tusk, cried: "Ho! what have we here,
so very round and smooth and sharp? To me tis mighty clear,
this wonder of an elephant, is very like a spear!"
The third approached the animal, and, happening to take,
the squirming trunk within his hands, "I see," quoth he,
the elephant is very like a snake!"
The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:
"What most this wondrous beast is like, is mighty plain," quoth he;
"Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree."
The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said; "E'en the blindest man
can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an elephant, is very like a fan!"
The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,
than, seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the elephant is very like a rope!"
And so 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!
So, oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween,
tread on in utter ignorance, of what each other mean,
and prate about the elephant, not one of them has seen! (2)
Just as the blind men in Saxe’s poem have multiple interpretations of the elephant, different readers might have multiple interpretations of the poem’s moral.
One key theme is naive realism, a concept from social psychology that reminds each of us that although we see the world from our own subjective point of view, we often make the mistake of assuming that our point of view is the single correct and objective point of view. Those who disagree with us, therefore, must be wrong, biased, or irrational. Each blind man in the poem falsely assumed that his perception was objective; however, the reader understands that the experience and perception of each blind man is limited and, therefore, too subjective to base any conclusions on.
A second key theme is the logical fallacy called hasty generalization. This is a fallacy of inductive reasoning where we base a conclusion on limited evidence. For example, just because you don’t speak Italian, no one in your family speaks Italian, and none of your friends speaks Italian does not necessarily mean that no one in your hometown speaks Italian. Each blind man in the poem jumps to a different false conclusion based on just a single piece of evidence.
A third key theme is a logical fallacy called the fallacy of composition. This fallacy occurs when we falsely infer that a whole is made up of the same properties as its parts. Each blind man in the poem, for example, made the mistake of concluding that the part of the elephant that he encountered was representative of the whole. You might think this is not an error that sighted people make; however, how often have you seen people form stereotypes based on their experience of a part rather than the whole. If you walk into a store, for example, and you encounter a rude salesperson, you might falsely conclude that the entire business is made up of rude people. Or maybe you are driving through a small town; as you make observations about what you see, your mind naturally uses the examples to inductively lead you to a general conclusion about the town. However, because your observations are based on a brief and limited sample, you should recognize that your conclusion is probably more a stereotype than a sound, objective judgment about the town’s character.
Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What are the thinking errors made by the blind men in Saxe’s poem?
Challenge - The Elephant in the Room: Write a brief PSA to challenge your readers/listeners to avoid one of three errors of sloppy thinking: Naive Realism, Hasty Generalization, and the Fallacy of Composition. Assume your audience is unfamiliar with the concept; give definitions and concrete examples.
ALSO ON THIS DAY:
-June 2, 1989: The film Dead Poets Society was released on this day. In the film, Robin William plays an influential and eccentric English teacher who challenges his students to think philosophically about their lives rather than conform to society’s expectations. In the following quote, he challenges his students to see differently: "Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly or wrong, you must try."
Sources:
1-Allpoetry.com. “John Godfrey Saxe.”
2-Saxe, John Godfrey. “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” 1872 Public Domain.
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