instinct
IPA: ˈɪnstɪŋkt
noun
- A natural or inherent impulse or behaviour.
- An intuitive reaction not based on rational conscious thought.
adjective
- (archaic) Imbued, charged (with something).
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Examples of "instinct" in Sentences
- McDougall obviously employs the term instinct in a much more comprehensive and inclusive sense than Shand does.
- Once upon a time, the term instinct was perfect way to explain things that we didn't completely understand at the time.
- There is a growing tendency in biology and comparative psychology to restrict the term instinct to inherited purposive adaptations.
- This wisdom is often classed by the unknowing under the term instinct, whereas it displays no less skill and knowledge than that of our modern surgery.
- In both popular and scientific literature the term instinct has been given such a variety of meanings that it is not possible to frame for it an adequate definition which would meet with general acceptance.
- To apply the term instinct to the regular and involuntary movements of the bodily organs, such as the beating of the heart and the action of the organs of respiration, is manifestly an extension of the ordinary acceptation of the term.
- Let us adopt then words sanctioned by usage, and give the distinction between intelligence and instinct this more precise formula: _Intelligence, in so far as it is innate, is the knowledge of a_ form; _instinct implies the knowledge of a_ matter.
- Thus, if we consider only those typical cases in which the complete triumph of intelligence and of instinct is seen, we find this essential difference between them: _instinct perfected is a faculty of using and even of constructing organized instruments; intelligence perfected is the faculty of making and using unorganized instruments_.
- As we breed animals for the transmission of physical attributes, so the Kaldanes breed themselves for the transmission of attributes of the mind, including memory and the power of recollection, and thus have they raised what we term instinct, above the level of the threshold of the objective mind where it may be commanded and utilized by recollection.
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