Cats, Cucumbers, Psychology, Philosophy, and Reasoning

Argus

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Occasionally, silly videos and memes on Facebook spur deep philosophical thinking. That was the case this morning, so I thought I'd share!

Today, we will be talking about senses, perceptions, logic, and reasoning. And we'll be doing it using a video of cats and cucumbers.

Someone posted the following video, to which another facebook user sincerely inquired "Why are they afraid of it [cucumbers]?" It may seem an obvious, if narrow-minded question, but it's actually a good one in a sense. Here's the video. Okay, well, not the exact video, but one like it:

Reading comments, it's almost as interesting to consider what goes on in the minds of people reasoning about why the cat is scared, as it is interesting to actually consider what is going on in the cat's mind.

Now, I'm sure it's quite obvious to most of you, but let's delve in:

The question some people ask, in earnest, is "Why would a cat be scared be scared of a cucumber?"
My first response would be to say "they aren't." Now, to someone focused on the "details" and "facts" of the argument, taking a very matter-of-fact, Sensing based approach, this may seem an absurd thing to say; we just watched a video where we clearly see cats being scared of cucumbers! It's a fact! Cucumbers scare cats! Therefore cats are scared of cucumbers! Why might that be?

A person thinking along those lines may then consider the details, and characteristics of cucumbers which might scare a cat, and may postulate, for example, that "Cucumbers, being green and lumpy, may look like reptiles such as lizards, alligators, or snakes, and this scares the cat."

That's a good observation, but does it explain why the cat is scared in the first place? Likely, it is a contributing factor, but it's not the underlying reason, and it's a misdirected approach. The problem is in the question itself; if one starts with the assumption that cats are scared of cucumbers, then one naturally assumes that it is the cucumber, and the cucumber's properties which cause the cat distress. But what if the cucumber being a cucumber is not the important factor? Would a cat be afraid of a cucumber normally, which is just laying on the ground or table, any more than any other vegetable, fruit, or other inanimate object?

A common misconception is that our senses and perceptions reflect the world exactly as it is; that everything appears to be what it is, as we see, hear, feel, and smell it. But the way our brains make sense of sensory input is deeply complex; subjective, and highly open to interpretation. At face value, and face value alone, the random wavelengths of light that enter our eyes mean nothing. The subjective differences between a smooth, rough, hard, or soft surface means nothing. The change of pitch of a given sound means nothing. The given smell of a fruit or flower means nothing. It's only by connecting these sensory inputs to experiences, or piecing them together and adding missing information, that we make sense of the world around us.

So, how does our cat perceive a cucumber? Let's enter the subconscious mind of a cat, for a moment; here we are, enjoying our food, with our head down. We've walked up to our bowl, and we know what was around us, having seen that the area was clear of any strange creatures. We don't usually see strange creatures moving about the house, which we are intimately familiar with, and so we feel at ease. Now, we are done eating, and casually raise our head to look around. Looking around... Hey, what's tha- WHOAH, HOLY CRAP, IT'S CLOSE! It wasn't there before! It moved. Living things move. Something snuck up on me!

Vegetables do not even enter the mind, much less cucumbers. The brain doesn't make that connection, because it isn't expected, and it doesn't fit logically in with your perceptions/subconscious reasoning/context; when was the last time a vegetable snuck up on you? Vegetables don't move, and so your brain is not going to immediately see a vegetable, because it isn't expecting to. It's going to react, surprised, to some living creature (the only things we generally see moving in the wild), which has snuck right up behind you while you were vulnerably eating with your head down. At that point, you probably won't know or even attempt to identify it beyond "scary vague thing that snuck up on me." "Green" and "lumpy" might possibly enter your consciousness as details, but you will not have yet taken the time to consider the exact shape of the object and deduce that it is a cucumber. And if you're a cat with very little experience of cucumbers, that deduction will naturally take quite a while; at least until you carefully observe that it doesn't move any more, and you've sat there wondering how it snuck up on you in the first place, and if it's dead now. So, the cat was not scared of a cucumber. It was scared of some vague, initial glimpse of an animal that snuck right up behind it! The cucumber being a cucumber, and the characteristics and details of the cucumber itself, are of no, or at least very little importance; perhaps the color and shape of the cucumber help somewhat in creating the impression of a scary animal such as a reptile, but likely any vegetable or inanimate object would suffice.

I'm sure many of you got that immediately, but it does go to show how we can get lost in the details and facts, and forget the context and broader scope that is required to properly interpret reality. It also goes to show how fallible our senses and impressions are. Everything is subjectively interpreted on many layers of abstraction; each building on the next. Nothing can be taken at face value. So, next time you see something "green," consider that what you are seeing are, in fact, the wavelengths of light which are being reflected by that object, and not absorbed by it, meaning that, in fact, the object you are looking at is everything BUT green, and you are merely seeing a "shadow" of it, if you will. That, and your experience of green is entirely subjective, and in your mind, as is how you interpret it in the context of a cucumber that just snuck up on you. ;)

Note: reposted from my Facebook note.
 
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Buka

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Looks like a conditioned response to me. I'd even bet on it.
What we have is a compilation of people frightening domesticated pets in a setting where those pets usually feel safe - where they feed.

There are all kinds of A-holes in this world. I just saw a new breed of them.
 

drop bear

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Oh. One of these discussions. Because nobody could just get a cat put a cucumber near it and see what happens.
 
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Argus

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Oh. One of these discussions. Because nobody could just get a cat put a cucumber near it and see what happens.

We just watched an entire video of people doing that.

I was questioning how people interpreted what they observed in the video. Data is one thing. Making sense of data is another thing entirely. I was dealing with the latter.
 

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