Instincts

"Instinct" is a wonderful word and better still a human facility describing something we do not really know. Put any noun before it and you've got a book.  Consider the faith instinct, language instinct, ... math, physics, political, poker, gaming, medical, musical, confusion, business instincts, and so on.  As well, there are intellectual, social, and physical instincts  The case is made; the logic is complete. Instincts are celebrated at the same level as innovations and intuitions.


Our everyday life is immersed in a vat of instincts. They are an aspect of life not well defined but upon which many of us rely.  They are a consequence of long study and many times longer experiment and experience. It allows us to transcend logic, confidence, and understanding.  They form a deep primordial type of reasoning ability we truly treasure.

To many, they transcend expertise going beyond the everyday and metrical norms. A person with good instincts is regarded as having beyond the usual abilities we appreciate. "He has a genius, this we know, but are his instincts good?"  we may ask.  Instincts cannot be taught.  Indeed, they often seem counter to classroom learning.  Yet, instincts can be developed. We often trust our lives upon personal instincts and those of others.  The great hunter is valued for pure instincts; the navigator for decisions, the parents in raising children, the artist for form, composition and color, the general for strategies. Literally, hundreds of books have been written about human (and animal) instincts.

Instincts help us confront the unknown, and even the unknowable. 

Instincts are a principle tool for confronting risk.  Lack of instincts leads to risk-aversion.  Instincts plunge us into devising solutions in our everyday world of partial information.  Instincts make poor testimony in legal proceedings, but give great guidance for personal action.


We have political candidates whose main claim is their instinct about what to do.  No details are really given, but we have elected presidents on the basis of our trust in their instincts. It does not matter whether they have previously achieved results, but it does matter we believe they have the instincts to do an excellent job.  Like it or not, we fall to the promise of higher instincts again and again, and we may do it again soon.  Basically and compounding the term, 

We use our personal instincts to abduct whether another has the ‘right’ instincts.