Reason and Instinct

According to the traditional conception, human behavior consists of two main components--Instinct and Reason. There is general agreement in the tradition that Instinct is fundamentally blind impulsive motion. But differences in conception of the nature of Reason, and how it relates to Instinct, are at the root of some significant Moral debates. 'Sentimentalists', such as Hume, believe Instinct chooses its own goal, and Reason serves only to calculate the best means to achieving the latter. 'Rationalists', such as Aristotle and Kant, insist, to the contrary, that Reason can constrain and override Instinct. One chronic shortcoming in the Rationalist analysis is the weakness of the explanations given as to how or why Instinct accedes to Reason. Aristotle goes no further than to simply state that it does, while Kant offers up a feeling of 'Respect' that Reason breeds, the unsatisfactoriness of which is underscored by his continuing to treat Reason as an uncomfortable yoke on Instinct. Nietzsche is more persuasive, because he challenges the presumed antagonism between Reason and Instinct, arguing, instead, that Reason is no more than an overpowering immanent harmonizing of Instincts. Still, all these positions share a common mis-analysis of the nature of Instinct, specifically that, in itself, it is pure unfettered impulsive motion. To the contrary, Instinct, in itself, is immobilized by the infinity of possible courses open to it. It seeks Form to release it, because Form selects and defines a channel for it. A sensory goal, as Dewey has shown, supplies such a Form, but so too does Reason. The advantage of Reason over Sense is that it offers wider scope to Impulse, in comparison with the mere immediate proximity of a sensory goal. Hence, Reason, far from being antagonistic to Instinct, is a facilitator of the latter, and as the Rationalistic argument should put it, one that is superior to Feeling. As the Formaterial conception of Individual Conduct has it, Instinct, i. e. the Material Principle finds an effective ambit-assessor in Reason, i. e. the Formal Principle, as they combine to Evolve to the greatest degree possible.