We are all born with them: fixed action patterns that are involuntarily learned. They are the primordial drive behind the acting forces of every human. They are nearly unavoidable and are the key to survival. Yet in such a civilized and industrialized society we are taught to forgo basic instincts and replace them with logical approaches to nearly everything in life. These instincts that at one time completely ruled humans are being quelled out of us.

At the most basic level instincts drive us to seek shelter, eat, and reproduce. There are however more evolved and complex instincts working behind the scenes. Instincts that encourage fear in particular situations, specifically that subconsciously tell us to fight or take flight in situations that warrant almost immediate response to confrontation. They help us survive when surrounded by a natural and dangerous environment. It’s the underlying force that decides what route to take when scrambling across a stream or up an unsturdy precipice.

Instincts are also believed to have social influences. Through the evolution of man cultural adaptation has given rise to instincts that work to create social relationships and determine on an individual level in what direction to take a relationship or how to approach another human.

The primitive man gathered socially for ceremonies that banished evil spirits, guaranteed bountiful crops, and generally protected themselves from magic. These activities were driven by basic social instinct. One could extrapolate from this that the phenomenon of organized religion is then to some degree instinctual. The desire to socially share a spiritual experience is somewhat based on the dependency humans desire to feel towards the group. So when did this personal and social experience become replaced with redundant and impersonal procedure? The instinct to discover spirit socially and personally has been superseded by the unnatural procedural gathering that is not only unexplantive but unfufilling.

Social mores and moral compass can also be said to derive from primitive instinct. Instincts that have been bestowed upon us by God and inherited from generation to generation. Some social philosophy suggests that instincts have been given to man by God to elicit activities that are later explained by reason. In other words, we are instinctively driven to explain our unexplained actions and motives by reasoning after-the-fact.

A more general explanation of social instincts can be applied to our ability to ascertain the truth from social interaction. I could easily argue that humans are driven to seek the truth and there is an unexplainable yet familiar feeling and/or aura that surrounds the suspicion of a awry situation. We may occasionally feel something is wrong given different cues given from a group or individual. It is a subconsciously driven feeling and I would derive this feeling from primitively inherited instinct. The passing of instinct to the early man from God was passed down ancestrally and remains today. Some people may lack an aspect of this instinct or simply have a weaker understanding of it. Some would call these people naive, blissfully unaware, or simply ignorant.

The point is, instincts that produce feelings or set off alarms, or drive us in a certain direction, in my humble opinion, should at the very least be thoroughly investigated or blindly followed. Instincts are what have kept humans alive and allowed us to adapt and to deny them would be fallacious in the insurance of our continued existence.

More reading:
The Role Of Instinct In Social Philosophy
The Social Philosophy Of Instinct