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| “Every man sits upon a throne built from the stones of his own misjudgment.” |
Once there lived a man named Sagarva, of the Vidari tribe. He was a man of means and knowledge, and was regarded as among the most learned on Vidari island.
On one occasion, Sagarva chanced to visit a village on the Jivavarta mainland. There he encountered a man named Bhauta, a highborn villager whose manner was plain, whose speech was coarse, and whose eyes showed no sign of intelligence.
They spoke only briefly. In that exchange, Sagarva realized that Bhauta had failed to grasp much of what he had said. The knowledge Sagarva had gathered through years of study seemed to vanish into thin air, lost against what Sagarva took to be Bhauta’s sheer ignorance.
As Sagarva walked away, his stride lengthened and his chin rose. He pictured Bhauta always cast out, never included in the world of ideas. “What a sad life,” he sighed, mistaking his own pride for kindness.
Yet Bhauta, watching Sagarva’s retreating figure, felt no shame. He felt instead a quiet regret. On his way home, he met a friend.
“I just met a man of remarkable learning," Bhauta said thoughtfully. "He spoke beautifully, as learned men do. It is truly unfortunate that he is a tribal of such low birth. Had he been otherwise, I might have counted him as a friend."
In this way, each man returned home convinced he had looked down upon the other, each crowning himself with the private comfort of his own imagined superiority.
Reflection: Every man sits upon a throne built from the stones of his own misjudgment.
Key Philosophical Concepts Represented
1. Epistemic Humility
Recognition of the limits of one’s own knowledge; the failure to do so leads to pride and misjudgment.
đź”— Epistemic humility
2. Mutual Misrecognition
The inability to truly see or acknowledge the other as a full moral and epistemic agent.
3. Hubris
Overestimation of oneself, resulting in moral and intellectual blindness.
4. Relativism of Social Judgment
Understanding that notions of worth, intelligence, or virtue are shaped by social and cultural frameworks.
Most authors linger on endless descriptions—faces, garments, palaces gleaming in detail.
ReplyDeleteMehta does something rarer, she lets you feel the pulse of the character within those walls.
Standing in that palace is not about marble or chandeliers, but about envy rising, pride swelling, sorrow pressing down, and depression shadowing the soul.
And I love it—because she turns buildings into feelings, and grandeur into something deeply human. Marsh Dublin BookClub
We should all practice a bit of epistemic humility, it’s just realising we’re not perfect and we can be wrong. It’s about knowing what you don’t know and seeing mistakes not as failures, but as the first step to learning. If you’re too afraid of being wrong, you’ll never have the courage to explore new ideas
ReplyDeleteIs Shon Mehta the Sun Tzu of today’s world, or was Sun Tzu simply the “Shon Mehta” of his own? Just kidding, Mehta’s words, like Sun Tzu’s, are not bound by time. They carry wisdom that will remain timeless. Good Parable.
ReplyDelete