Charles
>>> <wrobert at uci.edu> 06/12/2008 3:50 PM >>>
Charles, I think some work needs to be done to link this with a claim
about instincts towards a 'heterosexual instinct' among humans. This
is
also true about the Feuerbach/Marx material, which seems to be missing
a
few steps. Robert Wood
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instinct
>
> Instinct is the inherent disposition of a living organism toward a
> particular behavior. Instincts are unlearned, inherited fixed action
> patterns of responses or reactions to certain kinds of stimuli.
Innate
> emotions, which can be expressed in more flexible ways and learned
> patterns of responses, not instincts, form a basis for majority of
> responses to external stimuli in evolutionary higher species, while
in
> case of highest evolved species both of them are overridden by
actions
> based on cognitive processes with more or less intelligence and
> creativity or even trans-intellectual intuition.
>
> Examples of instinctual fixed action patterns can be observed in the
> behavior of animals, which perform various activities (sometimes
> complex) that are not based upon prior experience and do not depend
on
> emotion or learning, such as reproduction, and feeding among
insects.
> Other examples include animal fighting, animal courtship behavior,
> internal escape functions, and building of nests.
>
> Instinctual actions - in contrast to actions based on learning which
is
> served by memory and which provides individually stored successful
> reactions built upon experience - have no learning curve, they are
> hard-wired and ready to use without learning, but do depend on
> maturational processes to appear.
>
> Biological predispositions are innate biologically vectored
behaviors
> that can be easily learned. For example in one hour a baby colt can
> learn to stand, walk, and run with the herd of horses. Learning is
> required to fine tune the neurological wiring reflex like behavior.
True
> reflexes can be distinguished from instincts by their seat in the
> nervous system; reflexes are controlled by spinal or other
peripheral
> ganglion, but instincts are the province of the brain.
>
>
>
>
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