What is instinct?

[sleepyhead]

Hello,

1. Do you believe animals have instinct?
2. Do people have instinct?
3. What is the purpose of instinct?
4. If people have instinct can it be tapped into in some way?

[LiamOS]

1. Do you believe animals have instinct?

I do.

2. Do people have instinct?

I believe so.

3. What is the purpose of instinct?

I do not think that a process such as instinct has an inherent purpose.
Evolutionarily, though, it would serve to make decisions in cases where thought or other such processes are impossible or otherwise not forthcoming.

4. If people have instinct can it be tapped into in some way?

What do you mean?

[Darias]

If by instinct you mean fear - fight or flight, yeah that's instinct.

If by instinct you mean some sort of hidden knowledge within -- yeah idk about that.

1. All animals have instincts
2. Instincts are obviously a product of Evolution. For example, fear helps keep a species alive. Animals with less fear of heights or fear of people might tend to die out -- those possessing fear might tend to live long enough to pass on their genes to the next generation.

Dogs are domesticated animals whose ancestors are traced back to tamed wolves -- yet not all animals are tamable because some traits, like fear, are part of the "heart and soul" of the animal (DNA) and as a result they can't really be tamed.

The wolves that first befriended humans probably possessed less fear of man (the cause being genetic) enough to approach him for food by his camp -- and that led to him being possibly tamed and bred -- all future generations being domesticated.

And now we have chihuahuas...

[sleepyhead]

Hello,

I'm not sure if it was in the movie (walk of the penguins) or somewhere else but they have a process by which they know when to breed and the community process of producing offspring. Another nature show I watched showed birds doing a rather involoved courting dance in order to attract a female. Would this knowledge they have be considered instinct?

[sleepyhead]

Hello aki,

Sorry I missed your post before.

sleepyhead wrote:
4. If people have instinct can it be tapped into in some way?

you>>>What do you mean?<<<

For some reason, most of our social interactions, and survival decisions are taught. Why is it that animals know what their instinct tells them and we don't.

[LiamOS]

Many survival actions are innate as opposed to acquired such as ducking when somebody throws a fridge at you, jumping out of the way of a train, etc.

[Ragna]

For some reason, most of our social interactions, and survival decisions are taught. Why is it that animals know what their instinct tells them and we don't.

I don't think that is true at all.

Most of our social interactions are cultural, therefore transmitted memetically and not genetically (and they have to be learned); however, I disagree that our survival instincts are taught.

I think our primal instincts are pretty much alive (Aki's examples and alike), even if sometimes they are stopped by decorum (for example, wanting to roll down through the grass but not doing so because you are wearing expensive, elegant clothes). This may be more or less helpful, but the instincts remain. Just like for example a trained dog has his instincts to pee frustrated if he's obedient to his training, and waits patiently.

If you're thinking of first aids, well, remember that is mostly about the solutions to problems we have either created or learned to solve because, in nature, they are lethal (no possible instinct could be developed). If we lose a kidney in an accident (by a means of transportation we invented, by the way) we may survive - a lion wouldn't if he lost it, say, falling down and being impaled by a broken branch.