Xref: utzoo sci.misc:1135 talk.philosophy.misc:942
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!lll-lcc!pyramid!thirdi!sarge
From: sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode)
Newsgroups: sci.misc,talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: The nature of reality.
Message-ID: <369@thirdi.UUCP>
Date: 24 Mar 88 07:03:13 GMT
References: <2868@gryphon.CTS.COM> <343@thirdi.UUCP> <732@actnyc.UUCP> <356@thirdi.UUCP> <3503@dasys1.UUCP>
Reply-To: sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode)
Organization: Institute for Research in Metapsychology
Lines: 46
Keywords: reality credibility validity

In article <3503@dasys1.UUCP> gf@dasys1.UUCP (G Fitch) writes:
>Once upon a time there were five blind men who encountered
>an elephant and Sarge Gerbode.
>
>The first grasped the elephant's trunk.  "Aha!" he said, "the
>elephant is like a snake!"
>
>The second grasped the elephant's leg.  "No!" he said, "the
>elephant is like a tree!"
>
>The third felt the elephant's side.  "Not at all," he said,
>"the elephant is like a wall!"
>
>The fourth felt the elephant's tail.  "You're all wrong," he
>said, "the elephant is like a rope!"
>
>The fifth blind man said, "I think, if we perform further
>experiments, and reason about the results, we can construct
>a fairly good idea about what an elephant is.  It may be
>that we can even put this elephant to good use."
>
>"No," said Sarge Gerbode.  "There is no objective reality.
>And there is no elephant."  And he got on the elephant and
>rode away into the sunset.

Wonderful!

I'm going to be hard-pressed to find a quality comeback to this one!

Actually, what I would say is:

"Perhaps if we pooled our experiences and ironed out our differences, and if
we applied the rules of logic and other rules by which we all organize our
respective worlds, we could come to an agreement about what the nature of an
elephant is."

And we all got on the elephant that we had agreed on and rode off into the
sunset.
-- 
"Absolute knowledge means never having to change your mind."

Sarge Gerbode
Institute for Research in Metapsychology
950 Guinda St.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
UUCP:  pyramid!thirdi!sarge