Rail on in utter ignorance of what each other mean

You know the story of the blind men and the elephant. Suppose one of the blind men were to say,

"This fellow over here says an elephant is like a wall, and therefore can be used to hide behind. In fact, though, an elephant is like a rope. Now, how can anyone be so foolish as to think you can hide behind a rope?"

The thing is, this fellow over here is not (as far as we know) so foolish as to think you can hide behind a rope. The only foolishness the speaker has warrant to suggest is the foolishness of thinking an elephant is like a wall.

If the speaker were to ask, "How can anyone be so foolish as to think an elephant is like a wall?," and if he honestly wanted to know the answer, he'd be on the right path to learning something he doesn't know about elephants.

Anyone who really cares about revealing and uncovering true and false will make every effort to trace a contradiction back as close to its source as possible.

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