Flying Fish, Elephants, and Gestalt Theory

Abstract

If you have ever been traveling in a small boat in tropical waters and witnessed fish fly hundreds of yards just above the surface of the water, it is easy to imagine how birds might have evolved from fish. If you have ever seen skip-jack tuna attack a school of flying fish from below, it is also easy to understand why being able to jump out and skim above the water would be a useful adaptation. Fish with pectoral fins, to flying fish with efficient gliding fins, to birds with wings, is an evolutionary path easy to envision. But from fish anatomy to reptile, to mammal, to human anatomy is a longer leap. Paleontologist Neil Shubin (2008) uses clever examples from the fossil record to show how certain parts of human anatomy evolved from earlier fish and reptile species. In one example, he shows how the pattern of bones in the human arm (one large bone connecting to two smaller bones which connect to many small bones in the hand) is the same pattern as in many fish fins and most reptilian appendages. Taking a different approach, Jonathan Haidt (2006, 2012) looks at the evolution of the human brain and discusses how that history affects the unconscious use of our senses in making moral decisions. I was struck by how some of Haidt’s ideas about the way human brains operate align with the Gestalt principals of “awareness” and the use of the senses. This reflection will explore some of the links between evolutionary biology, cultural psychology, and Gestalt theory. Haidt (2012) identifies himself as a moral psychologist and defines the first principal of moral psychology as follows: “Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.” Human brains evaluate instantly and constantly; Haidt states: