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%INSTINCT VS CALCULATION 771104
Instinct and calculation are both coping mechanisms,
but instinct is by far the more ancient. Calculation as a
coping mechanism developed as an adaptation which promoted
survival in changing environments. Instinct tends to
promote survival best in stable environments --- because
it as a coping mechanism is not flexible in the short
term. Calculation, on the other hand, may be so unstable
in its flexibility as to promote instability in the
environment to the point of undermining well functioning
instincts --- and so undermining the ability of a species
to survive. Survival-value conflicts between instinct and
calculation as coping mechanisms --- are often the most
basic conflicts relevant to the survival of the human
species.
Human instincts through seniority have great power to
direct human behavior; they are not easily removed from
office and power. For calculations to be based upon the
assumption that instincts are removed from office and
power --- is usually foolish in the extreme. Repression
of instincts is not the same as transcendence of
instincts. Wise calculations respect the continuing roles
of instincts in motivating and guiding humane behavior.
Foolish calculations pretend that all motivation and
guidance can originate in calculative coping patterns.
Such pretensions are undermined by essential instincts of
greater seniority than the calculative coping mechanisms.
Calculative coping mechanisms are expressed in formal
symbolic language, thought processes which are dependent
upon formal symbolic language and techniques refined
through such formal though processes. Instinctive coping
mechanisms relate to meeting essential bodily needs for
food, affection, social intercourse, sexual intercourse;
shelter from hostile natural and human environments, etc.
The survival of the human species depends upon the
integration of instinctive and calculative coping
mechanisms in ways which recognize the essential roles
which each coping mechanism has to play, granting each its
occasion to make its contribution in the appropriate
times, places, contexts, situations, etc. For any one
coping pattern to arrogate exclusive power is destructive
in the long term.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
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