How to teach Descartes to a school of fish.

Posted on Author Donna Barstow

teacher fish teaches fish school cogito ergo sum

Actually, I think I used the wrong word in this caption. The name of the course lesson for this school of fish should be  Philosophy, not Logic. The theorem, I think, therefore I am is by a philosopher, not a logician!  (I took both subjects, but apparently not enough of either.)

Philosopher Rene Descartes

Some cartoon ideas just resonate with a cartoonist more than others, and this is one of them. We keep working at it with different captions, trying to get it “right”!

Some variations:

  • I think, therefore I am
  • Cogito ergo sum
  • je pense, donc je suis
  • I fish, therefore I am. (Or, I am, therefore I am a fish.)

Rene Descartes chose to write this theorem in French, rather than Latin, to reach a wider audience in his country than just scholars.

He forgot text slang.

My latest cartoon in PsychCentral is about the lady or the tiger. (If you’ve heard of Descartes, you probably already read the short story.}

ID: #646iu A school of fish. Instructor in front of whiteboard says, “I swim, therefore I am.”

Side note and off topic: I am a big fan of Swimfan, the movie. I’m a high schooler.

Donna Barstow
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Donna Barstow

Syndicated cartoonist in the New Yorker, LA Times, Harvard Business Review, Slate, textbooks, papers. Columnist for 10 years in Psychology Today. Set painter in studio Art Depts. Member Scriptwriters Network, script analyst. Author, 2 hardcopy books, Barnes & Noble Calendar.