For me, instinct is one of the most powerful tools we have as human beings. Is instinct our body telling our mind to move or act in a certain way or is it the mind telling the rest of our body to move or act?
Is instinct actually in the nerve endings of every inch of our body, an extension of our mind for the purpose of protecting our bodies?
Instinctual reactions cause fight or flight, lust or disgust, hunting or gathering. They differ often along gender lines, in racial groups, depending on age and a myriad of other factors. A baby will instinctually move it's mouth towards it's mothers milk, or cry when it's hungry or wet. These things are born to us and they are signals coming from everywhere in our body. Often the reactions are lightning fast and we are moved before we've had time to really think about the situation and analyze outcomes. We are often convinced by outside forces to ignore and deny our instincts, because it's proper or because we are not "animals". Why do we feel like instinct is animal behavior and when did the idea that denying instinct was the only way to progress as a society or as humans? Where did we lose the ability to balance logic and reason alongside our instinctual feelings?
According to Aristotle in 'Book II of Nichomachean Ethics', instinct and habit are the very base of our foundations of moral virtue. Whereas Neitszche seems to be saying in 'Will to Power' that instincts are firmly established dispositions of any significant degree of specificity, however acquired. But that they have less to do with moral virtue because it is tempered by our perceptions of the "apparent world" and the "true world". Are instincts based on perception or are they more base than that? Which comes first the instinct or the thought?
I'm curious to hear what you all think of Instinct, and I believe it falls into Philosophy of the Mind but I might be wrong. Is instinct what makes us human? Is it what differentiates us from machine? Could machines ever acquire instinct, and if not... could that be the reason why AI is so scary? That Aristotle might be right and instinct is really the foundation for moral virtue?