Questions that make you think
Thought
Below are questions that have no right answers, they are there for the soul purpose to make you think! Please comment on them and give your opinion.
Does a fish know that it is in water? If so, does it know what “out of water” is?
What does it mean to be human?
How do we know that we exist?
Chris Chavez said
Does a fish know that it is in water? If so, does it know what “out of water” is?
Think of an infant experiencing water. It is normally able to breathe. If it is submerged in water, it will not be able to breathe (among other changes). It may not know why, but it will try to leave the water and survive as much as a fish will flail on land to get back into water. It may not understand the concept of water, but it will “know” about the changes caused by a lack of water.
RW said
Does a fish know that it is in water? If so, does it know what “out of water” is?
If the fish were plucked out of the water, the fish would be aware of an absence of water due to physiological functioning. It would not “know” what it means to be in water, or to be out of water – but only the discomfort of the absence of the regular environment.
RW
Kyran Luhrs said
But if it felt the discomfort, would it be able to understand the difference between comfort and discomfort?
If it can, then why doesn’t it “know” that it is out or in water?
If it is aware of its current state, then how does it not “know” that it was in a better state prior to the one it is in now?
But good thought. Thanks for replying!
Kyran Luhrs
RW said
I think that it is incorrect to equate a ‘feeling’ of discomfort with an ‘understanding’ of discomfort. A fish can physically feel discomfort, and still be completely unaware of any causal factors.
To say that a fish is aware of comfort, discomfort, a proper state, or an agitated state is to imply that the fish has conscious thought (the capability of understanding). I think that anything a fish comes to “know” cannot be Real “knowing” (as in the human sense), but only to “know” whatever its sensory apparatuses cause it to feel.
For a fish to infer causal connections would necessitate high-level mental operation. The “better state”, for a fish, is the state in which its physiological needs are satisfied adequately. It follows that being out of water would not qualify as a satisfactory state, as the fish requires water to live and survive.
RW