Elephant test
The term elephant test refers to situations in which an idea or thing "is hard to describe, but instantly recognizable when spotted".[1]
Origin
The term may come from an Indian fable involving three blind men (or men in the dark) that happen upon a very large object (an elephant). Perplexed as to what the object is, the men attempt to describe, individually, what they think it is, and each man produces a different answer (a rope, a tree trunk, and a fire hose). The men then argue about what the whole object actually is without knowing that, in actuality, each man identified only a portion of the whole (respectively, the tail, leg, and trunk of the elephant) and not one of them is correct.
The story is often used to show that no one person has a wholly "correct" view of any one subject.
Uses
The term is often used in legal cases when there is an issue which may be open to interpretation,[2][3] such as in the case of Cadogan Estates Ltd v Morris, when Lord Justice Stuart-Smith referred to "the well known elephant test. It is difficult to describe, but you know it when you see it".[4]
See also
- Blind men and an elephant
- Duck test
- Elephant in Cairo
- Elephant in the room
- I know it when I see it
- Seeing the Elephant
References
- ^ Valuing and Judging Partners — Beyond the Elephant Test!, Edge International Review, Summer 2006
- ^ B.Wedderburn, The Worker and the Law (3rd ed, Harmondsworth, Penguin,1986), 116.
- ^ Catherine Barnard, The Personal Scope of the Employment Relationship, in T.Araki and S.Ouchi (eds), The Mechanism for establishing and Changing Terms and Conditions of Employment/The Scope of Labor Law and the Notion of Employees, The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training Report, 2004, vol.1, 131-136.
- ^ Cadogan Estates Ltd v Morris; EWCA Civ 1671 (4 November 1998) (at paragraph 17)
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