A HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE

SIX BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT

BY JOHN GODFREY SAXE
Group 1
Gan
Latagan
Dalog
Gallego
Laurequez
Martinez
1. DID ANYONE AMONG THE BLIND MEN GAVE
THE CORRECT ANSWER? WHY OR WHY NOT?

 As stated in the poem, even though each were partly

right, they were still wrong. The person who gave the
idea will think that they are right and the others are
wrong, since truth is relative. What is true and what
is not may depend on the person. However, that
doesn't mean that all their ideas of what is true are
valid. In their case, since they are blind, they are only
limited to their observations on what they felt and
knew to describe the elephant. But if there is a
person who can see well, their observations will not
be limited to what they just felt and know, but also to
what they can see as a whole.
2. IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ELEPHANT STORY, WHAT
DO YOU THINK IS A HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE?
WHAT IS A PARTIAL POINT OF VIEW?

Holistic perspective is seeing

something as a whole to understand
each and every part, rather than
understanding only a certain part,
while a partial point of view is seeing
only one part of something and having
a sole judgment based on that certain
detail, not even caring what it’s part
of.
 3. WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF A HOLISTIC
PERSPECTIVE AS POINTED OUT BY THE POET JOHN
GODFREY SAXE?

 Holistic perspective means not only having one basis as

you look into something or someone. Instead, it's looking
on different angles to further see the bigger picture or
idea in that certain something. In the poem of John
Godfrey Saxe, the six blind men were able to give
different ideas about what the object was, based from
what they concluded after touching specific parts of the
elephant for each. They ended up arguing since their
observations were one-sided. Hence, this implies that
having a holistic approach/perspective onto something or
someone, people can arrive at the same idea which
might lead a person to what is really ought to be true,
leading them to what is right, not what just seems to be
right.
 4. IN THE LAST STANZA , THE POET RELATED THE
LEGEND TO THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN HIS TIME. WHAT
DO YOU THINK IS HE TRYING TO SAY IN THIS POEM?

 When it comes to the moral of the Blind Men and the

Elephant, it seems that today’s philosophers end their
agenda too quickly. Doesn’t the picture of the blind men
and the elephant also point to something bigger -- The
elephant? Indeed, each blind man has a limited
perspective on the objective truth, but that doesn’t mean
objective truth isn’t there. In fact, truth isn’t relative at
all…it’s there to be discovered in all its totality. In
theology, just because we have limited access to truth,
that doesn’t mean any and all versions of truth are
equally valid. Actually, if we know the whole elephant is
out there, shouldn’t this drive us to open our eyes wider
and seek every opportunity to experience more of Him?
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!!