If a man is offered a fact, which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something, which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence.
-Bertrand Russell
What a wonderful thought (except for the gender bias)! I have been living with my instincts from the day of realization! There aren't a whole lot of people whom I know believe that their instincts lead them to bad conclusions!! What are these based on! There is no knowledge behind instincts. It is a behavioral pattern that occurs naturally.
"Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out", says Michael Burke.
Instincts give you the pleasure of knowing yourself. Sometimes it might lead you to a point where you start to evaluate facts, based on your instinctual knowledge. Say for example, you meet a person for the first time, your instinct says something about this person, may be nice or may be something bad! Doesn’t matter! Down the lane if this person does something, subconsciously your mind records those actions and tries to place those on the instinctual folders in the brain!! So as we go on, we tend to evaluate them rather than just accepting them. Is it good? Ofcourse not! When you find the facts in accordance to the instincts, you feel good and will take the pride on your instincts! If it were not, sometimes even after those overwhelming evidences you wouldn’t accept it. Just because it defies the laws of your instincts!!
I have made several decisions based on just instincts, some worked out and some has not. For the ones, which did not work out, I drooled over it and made sure that I found the reason, which fits in my instinctual knowledge!! But, that’s not what one should do! We should not base our decisions on just the instincts! Facts play a major role, as long as we know how to handle facts and instincts as separate entities, we will definitely reach a path towards truth! It’s hard to stay away from your instincts, which has this enormous power of influence!! Since our lives always propagate on towards the path of ideality we are supposed to learn and educate!!! Thoughts influenced by instincts are acceptable in the ideal world, but not the decisions, which are completely instinct-based!! Succumb to those instinctual impulses that makes you think, but not to those, which makes you conclude!
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8 comments:
I must commend your efforts to express yourself as a blogger. But I do not agree with some of the words you have used.
"Drooling over the decisions": to drool means to make a extravagant show of desire. Could you please make it clear why did you drool over your decisions.
"propagate on towards the path of ideality" if you just say "propagate towards ideality" shouldnt that be enough since ideality a state of being ideal. It is similar to saying "I am the most ugliest person".
As a man grows and learns, cant instincts be based on facts? It would be a wrong idea to separate instincts from facts as we assimilate our experiences,which are facts, into our decision making process.
Anon!...Good work....! Thanks for the comments..I really do appreciate it!
I drooled over my decisions...Yes I did...What I mean here is that I spent a lot of time on it to reason it out the way I want to! so in the process I "made an effusive show of pleasure on it" Iam not sure if it makes sense to you...but thats what it is!
According to me...before propogating towards ideality...we should propogate towards the path!...We are so away from it...that we should find the path first and then reach the state of being!
and btw fact based impulses are not instincts...! :)
Thanks a lot once again...great to know that someone is their to scrutinize!
hey,
Thanks for clarifying makes more sense now.It is nice to know that you did not take my comments in awrong way.You have got a good flow of thoughts while writing. I can learn from your writing skills.
"btw fact based impulses are not instincts". There must be some events that have happened in history/life that would prove or disprove this statement. I will look them up and then conclude.
Thanks for your time.
A pretty important part of this topic culd be experience since experience and inferences based on inductive and deductive reasoning many a times directs ur instincts. Robert Persig comes to my mind as one person who beat this issuse black n blue.. Zen n the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a must-read!!
Vivek
Insticts are relative like every other feeling within us.There is something like right instincts and not so right instincts.
Instincts are not something to be judged or evaluated later,to state a quote mentioned by you..
"Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out", says Michael Burke.
Absoluetly and how true..coz the minute your thinking or using your head trying to evaluate it with facts or any parameter for that matter,than it means that either its not an instinct,which you think it is or an instinct probably which is not right.
Like they say "you scrutinise a fact not an instinct"...you cannot contemplate on an instinct and if something is forcing you to introspect/speculate/judge it ,than for sure what you felt was either not an instinct and if it was..then you know that its not the right one...!!
Decision-making is crucial.It can make or break and if one lives on decisions based on instincts .. he/she should primarily decide whether what he felt was really an instinct or just a momemtarily strong gush of impulsive feeling..!!!
Ya.. Where do instincts come frm? Wats their primordial state? Persig talks abt a baby thats put in an incubator straight frm the womb.. The baby doesnt hear any sound.. doesnt see any light.. Just fed IV food and allowed to grow. Say after 10 yrs it is let out.. What instincts will it have? Does it have them "a priori" or do experiences direct instincts?
Seems like a strong discussion!
Anyways...Rate these two scenarios (based on your definitions)..one is real and the other is hypothetical!
Real!
The layup. June 5, 1991. Mike went righty to lefty for a layup to show the Lakers it's no longer winnin' time. The Bulls lost Game 1 of their first Finals ever on a Sam Perkins 3-pointer, then were on the way to blowing out the Lakers in Game 2 when Jordan defied everyone with his switch-hands layup with Perkins looming. He was just sending a message!!
In the post gamne interview, MJ said it was just instincts, which made him switch his hands and take that shot..could easily be one of his bests!!
Hypthetical!
Say, Kumar goes to receive someone new student (stranger) from the airport. Something tells him that the person is going to be completly different and there is not even a remote chance of thought resonance!! The person arrives...Kumar wants to know if his feeling was right...he talks, listens and lives for the next hour with this only co-passenger in the car! finds that he was right..the person could only be an expendable acquaintance and nothin more than that!
The first one was knowledge based,
The second one is not.
What ya guys think?
haha.. the 2 examples u give are just perfect examples of inductive and deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning comes from experience. Like a research experiment where you make decisions based on observations. Deductive reasoning comes frm knowledge already gathered. That requires no experimentation to be proven again. And those surely direct instincts..
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