Analogy of people observing something from different viewpoints without recognizing it's the same thing

Question

I'm seeking to find this analogy which I vaguely recall.

A group of four or five different people are blindfolded and touch different parts of... something. I seem to recall that it was an animal, perhaps a dog.

One is touching the soft ears, one the sharp teeth, one the wet nose, one the rough paw pads. They are arguing about what it is, thinking that the portion they observe is representative of the whole.

The point of the story is to point out the danger in making assumptions about a large topic when you are only observing a small part of it.

Is there a specific source for this? Would I refer to it as an idiom? fable? analogy?

Answer 1

The fable of the blind men and the elephant is what you are looking for. To the blind man touching the trunk, an elephant seems to be a kind of snake. To the one touching the tail, it seems like a rope. The fable or parable is described on Wikipedia.