Week 4: Fish is Fish
by @aidanhurwitz
Last updated 2025-02-04 20:39
The short story Fish is Fish provides a surprisingly meta and deep metaphor for human learning. In the story, when the frog tells the fish all about the world above the water, the fish transforms ideas about cows and birds into ones revolving around fish. This is a silly but important example of constructivism, the philosophy that we learn based on our own constructions of reality, and that there is no one objective truth to be taught to everyone. In this scenario, the fish's objective reality is its own perception of what cows and birds are, and there is nothing in the story that suggests that the fish could be proven wrong. The audience gets no glimpse of these cows and birds, so we too only create the image of what we think they looked like in our minds. It is tempting to say that the fish is the one who is misinformed or unaware, however, we too are simply assuming this based on our own knowledge.
I think it is very important to translate the morals of this story into everyday life. A prominent issue in our society is overcorrection, or the action of assuming someone else is wrong without actually being able to prove it. We experience this everyday; someone who does not know the full story may explain something incorrectly to you or even call you wrong. A good example of overcorrection occurs in religion. Someone who is very religious may swear by belief that their faith is the correct one, however, it is by nature impossible to prove or disprove that thought. Like the fish, we only believe and know something based on our own preconceived ideas of it. With this in mind, we never truly understand how someone else views a topic or sees the world, since this would contradict the idea that it is self-constructed. Of course, we have to agree on somethings, after all, it is impossible to share knowledge if nothing can be proven or disproven. However, I think it is important to always consider the notion that other people do not think the same way as you, and it is not anyone's fault. It is simply a matter of being human and individualist which makes us unique, in body, spirit, and mind.
~382 words.