Does man have more animal instincts than the power of reason?

To state my view simply, if the (wo)man believes that (s)he cannot control such animal instincts, then no amount of reason will work.

Not to toot my own horn (honk), but I have been spending decades teaching myself that I can control my own self, including my baser instinctual drives. Among the many wonderful things I have (for the most part) control over include: being able to stop myself from throwing up/making myself throw up (without sticking an object down my throat and initiating the gag reflex); sucking in farts (unless I wait too long, then they come out louder), and; dampening my sex drive (there are some years in my marriage in which I have gone almost a year without getting any).

To sum it all up, the mind is still an immensely powerful organ -- we should use it to help us achieve wonders that others may not have thought were possible for an ordinary (wo)man!

First, I don't think reason is instinctual. It must be developed over time, while instinctual abilities and capacities are naturally occurring and difficult to limit rather than being time consuming to develop.

Reason is at once our greatest strength and our most severe downfall. It gives us the ability to think our way out of difficulties, but its development probably erases many of the earliest occupations of our eager young minds.

I think we do have a great number of so-called animal instincts. We have just buried them under countless layers of learned paraphernalia that we call knowledge.

I believe the abilities of psychics, for example, are common to us all. It is just that most of us have forgotten how to use them due to our concentration on the "five senses" we come to rely on instead.

Others are more easily seen. The fight or flight response is instinctual, and is easy to identify in humans when you place us in dangerously challenging situations. Unfortunately, that is the way it is with us humans. You have to put us in danger or otherwise challenge us severely before we are really able to "discover" many of our own instinctual responses.

In fact, I would submit that reason and instinct are at odds with each other. Our sexual responses are more instinctual/hormonal than we realize in many cases, and reason is what keeps us from following those urges to our detriment on many occasions.

This answer was edited by DannoMan 105 days ago.

Reason: .

Nice answer DannoMan. Your answer was related to one part only, and that was the "fight or flight response" which is mostly common in people with high levels of anxiety and panic. Instinct can also mean a powerful motivation or impulse for those who cannot abstain from such motivations. You may have divided instinct and reason into two separate parts, but would you say a man's instinct is more powerful than reasoning himself from such undesired actions?

This answer was edited by Goldentouch 105 days ago.

Reason: Added more text.

In the case of a younger child for example, where reason is clearly not well developed, I am certain that instinct is far stronger a motivator. But in an adult with a high degree of development in the area of reasoning, I believe that reason and instinct are evenly matched in strength as motivators. There is probably a situational difference, and there will always be individual differences, but in general I would say they are equally powerful forces shaping our behavior. It is just that instinctual urges have gotten a really bad rap in our civilization, and as a result they are frequently intentionally ignored (in preference to reason, for example). When they are not ignored they are misunderstood. And when they are neither of those, they are sometimes not taken seriously, as some sort of joke to be made fun of.

We are today, more times than not, enslaved by reason at the expense of instinctual behavior, which has gotten a bad name for being wrongly associated with criminal intent, and antisocial behavior.

I guess I would have to say that in a truly well developed human, they would be of equal power. In most examples of humans today, they are unbalanced, with reason holding a bit too much sway for some situations (obviously not for all situations, which include many in which reason is clearly the better alternative).

We should not confuse curiosity with instinct. Man's ability to reason is what sets him apart from the animal kingdom. Children's reasoning may not be well developed, but it is well enough developed to make them act on a whim based on their sense of curiosity. I also don't believe that we murder, steal or cheat because of an instinctive need to. Again, there is a difference between being selfish and instinctive. Having urges doesn't equate to it being instinctive. Our social constructions developed over time and while men were the primary breadwinners while woman were considered to be best suited for the kitchen, that perception has pretty much been turned upside down today. The same with sexual orientation in which homosexuality is slowly but surely becoming a mainstream accepted lifestyle choice.

In nature the strongest survive and mating rituals among animals consist of the female looking for the strongest male, while this is true to an extent among humans, even that is not a given anymore.

I am not saying we don't have instinctive behaviour, because we do, but our instincts are managed by our reasoning, which means we have less animal instincts than we like to think.

Human beings are basically instinctual and closely similar with the other existing animal species which from the womb instinctively yearns the mother's breast to feed. It's very first action prompted not by reason but by mere instinct. The wonderful thing about humans is that he is endowed with superior rational capability that sets him on top among all other animal species.

Human instincts operates side by side with intellect as man grows and matures. Majority of instinctual responses are being replaced with the learned processes in reacting to various stimuli of daily existence. Man eventually rationalizes and learned to care for his body needs, identify and avoid dangers, improve his environment for his safety and furtherance.

Despite man's intellect he is compelled under extreme circumstance to react instinctively through panic reactions that becomes experiences. This will enable him to respond rationally to similar circumstance in the future. Therefore in unexpected moments man reacts via instinctive actions or reflexes and plans for or anticipates events or activities rationally.

Humans do not seem to have a lot of instincts. Most of the things we do are learned. My dog has a lot of things that he does instinctively. I had to teach him not to do certain things. Running and doing jump attacks is not a game he was taught and he did not need to be taught how to swim. With humans most of the behavior is learned. We need to be taught almost everything.

As a baby we have some instinctive behaviors but as we get older we are ruled by reason. People often ignore the few instincts they have.

I agree.
WE are more instinctual than we appear. Many things that we think are unrelated are hereditary. such as what kind of food we prefer or your hand automatically flinches when someone says your word for "snake". (This one is interesting that we are not automatically afraid of snakes just predispositioned to be afraid of them)
This is true even to the point of instinct influencing what we believe to be totally cognitive reason or thoughts.