how does instinct work? If it’s just “baked” into an animal’s DNA, how does it “activate” and how does it “activate” successfully?
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Animals are considered ‘sentient’ – meaning they have feelings and emotions.
Humans are considered sentient *and* ‘sapient’ – meaning they have higher thinking functions.
If you have ever been afraid of the dark? That’s your sentient ‘instinct’ warning you that there might be dangers you cannot see in the dark and you should be careful.
Have you ever been attracted to someone? That is your sentient ‘instinct’ indicating they could be a good mating partner.
Just about any time a person is following ‘a hunch’ they cannot rationally explain, they are being led by their sentient/instinctual mind.
When someone says they are ‘just following my nose’, feeling their way forward though an unfamiliar situation, they are using what we call instinct.
Many birds just feel drawn to fly South at a certain time of the year. They do it because it feels good to do so at that time. They feel increasingly anxious until they give in to the feeling and just do it.
Squirrels just feel the need to hoard and bury and hide nuts they find. It feels right to them to do it that way. No ‘thought’ goes into it. They just feel a compulsion to do it.
That’s instinct. Its emotionally driven, compulsive behavior – the result of millions of years of natural selection and genetic programming.
What we call instinct is just a sentient creature’s way of living in the world.
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