The tortoise and the hare
Tilretteleggelse og illustrasjoner:
Anne Schjelderup
Filosofiske spørsmål:
Anne og Ariane Schjelderup/Øyvind Olsholt
Sist oppdatert: 20. januar 2004
This is the story about the tortoise
and the hare. They wanted to find out who was the fastest!
Once
there was a tortoise
and a hare.
They wanted to have a race.
The hare was certain
he would win;
he was so much faster than the tortoise. He told everybody
that he would win the race.
Then they started to run. The hare immediately
passed
the tortoise, and soon
the tortoise could no
longer see him. But he continued
to walk
slowly,
as tortoises do.
The hare was already
half way round the track.
When he came to a river,
he stopped to drink.
Beside the river there was a tree.
The hare lay
down under the tree. He thought
that he had plenty
of time
before the tortoise would arrive.
So he decided
to have a nap.
Soon he was fast
asleep.
The tortoise was still walking. He saw the hare
sleeping under the tree, and continued to walk. Finally, when he
was about
to cross the finish line, the hare woke
up. He ran
after the tortoise, but he came too late. The tortoise passed
the line before him, and won the race.
Suggested topics for philosophical discussion
- The hare knows that he is going to win. He is so convinced
that he doesn't take his competitor
seriously at all. Would you blame
the hare for:
– being convinced about his superiority?
– not taking his competitor seriously?
Or would you say that it is quite all right to be superior and
not take your competitors seriously? If not, why is it wrong?
- The tortoise wins the race. But that doesn't mean that he
is the faster of the two. What does this victory
really tell us? What do we learn from this story?
Suppose you were the tortoise and a journalist came up to you
after the race and asked you the following question: "How
is it possible for a tortoise to beat a hare in a race?".
What would you answer?
- If the hare had woken up from his sleep under the tree just
a few minutes earlier (or if he hadn't fallen asleep at all),
then he would easily have won the race. Would the story have
been the same with such an ending? Why did Aesop let the tortoise
win? What did Aesop want to tell us by letting the slow-moving
tortoise beat the fast-running hare?
 |
|
|