Instincts. I'm not sure I believe in "instincts" at all. To me,
such a classification is an old-fashioned concept designed to
provide a separation between human and animal.
We may follow patterns of behavior but instinct? I mean, there
are some things that are genetically programmed in, as it were.
But as we learn more and more about the importance of social
development among _all_ species of life (even to the level of
bacteria), there seems to be less and less in the way of
instinct and more in the way of social learning.
Some things "come with the package" and yes there are
tendencies. But the fact that the tendencies aren't universal
among a species is what leads me to that conclusion.
Even studying an organism in a closed laboratory environment,
free of socialization, is merely studying an organism in a
closed laboratory environment and how it behaves in such an
environment.
