When I was in college, one of the Leakeys (Richard?), (palaeoanthropologists) did a lecture at our college. I don’t remember much about it but one observation he made has stuck with me.

Imagine a group of people who are blindfolded. They are surrounding a large object and are asked to describe it based on what they can feel right in front of them. One person describes a round column the size of a tree trunk with a rough bumpy folded “bark”. Another describes a long smooth curved object with a pointy end. A third describes a wiggly snake like object that swishes about, a giant cow’s tail. A fourth describes a big flapping wing like thing.

In one scenario they describe the object to each other. And they can not agree so they start arguing and saying that the other people are wrong. They get no further to identifying and understanding what the object is because they are invested in being right. They can’t believe how wrong the other people are.

In a second scenario, they each describe what they have felt. At first it doesn’t make much sense and the impulse is to say “nope, that isn’t it.” But as they talk, and share what they know, they ask questions. The object can be both a tree trunk AND a swishy thing. And suddenly it emerges that they are all describing an elephant.

The notion that two or more thoughts could be correct but not the whole story has stuck with me for almost 50 years. I have no corner on the truth, maybe I can describe that big flapping wingy thing pretty well, but I need other people to help me describe the rest.