Science versus Instinct

I find it interesting that although humans are the most intelligent species, animal instinct in certain cases prevails. For instance before the tsunami struck Sri Lanka and other near by areas the animals instinctively knew to get to higher ground. But of course tsunamis are just one example others include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters. Any theories?

I'm wondering why you placed this thread in Theories/philosophy on Life, when perhaps it would have been more appropriate in the Science/ technology section. Anyways, great choice of topic though Jacker.

These 'instincts' are naturally part of animal social behaviour. The 'instincts' in species have evolved to help avoid stress. They are just as much a behavioural trait as the instinct to obtain food, avoiding being eaten, courtship & mating, living in groups, co-operation, and competition and territorial behaviour.

Another important point is that animals have evolved to respond to environmental stress, such as low temperature, low oxygen levels, drought, flooding, fire and salinity. Changes occuring in individual organisms during its development, or in response to an environmental factor, have been termed 'phenotypic plasticity', 'acclimatisation' or 'acclimation'.

Acclimatisation is the response of an animal to environmental changes that occur seasonally or geographically. For example, some animal species migrate each winter or summer to avoid the extreme temperatures, or to reproduce or to obtain food. All animals have thousands of behavioural instincts that help them survive. For example desert animals have the instinct to seek shelter from the sun, or other animals hibernate during winter to conserve energy. This behaviour also occurs in plants as well. Deciduous plants, for instance know when to shed their leaves in preparation for winter conditions. Or others know when to conserve water in times of drought or insinctively reach the sun for energy.


Interaction between the environment and the genes of the animal determine its characteristics. This is is one important factor that has determined evolution of life.

The greatest issue that is faced by all of life (including humans) right now is climate change. Over evolutionary history, species have adapted to the environment to instinctively behave in response to environmental changes. The problem is that the rapid rate of change is now of extreme concern.

human instict have almost been trained out of us. our more advanced society has caused us to follow "social norms" instead of instincts, there a re given things that we can and cant do according to society, the early forms of this, and the fact that early humans settled and started farming probably trained those survival traits you mentioned out of us. we had settled, and not even natural disaster could move us. and then science came along and we thought we could beat the weather, and geography. but it still gets the better of us.

though apparently some people who live on the islands in the sea around the area hit by the tsunami in 2004 survived, because they all moved up to the hills because they saw the sea go out further than it should, every single one of them survived, when everyone else who was badly struck by it thought that they would have been dead.

How though through the process of history did mankind lose such instincts. How can we once again learn and understand such things. Makes you think what else we've lost and picked up.

Well asumming we evolved from some sort of primate... I'd say we didn't loose much. Our instinct however is to progress/ And because of progress so far we are the best race in my opinion. Others might be able to surive a nuclear explosion but we are the only species capable of defending against a interstelar... or some big word for outer space... threat.

Extraterrestrial?

that would be the word you were looking for.

we have lost other things, there are bits of information that our predeccessors knew, but that we no longer have, though that is not the same thing. other than that i think in our evolution from monkeys, we have also lost the tail. but i dont know, we have probably lost various things, somewhere in my house ive got a book called "the anscestors tale" (about human evolution) at some point ill get round to reading it, and then ill tell you how else we are different from the monkeys..

Keep in mind it wasn't necessarily a monkey. Just a common ancestor.

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human instict have almost been trained out of us

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How though through the process of history did mankind lose such instincts.

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What are you generalizing about Cynic and Jacker? What is this knowledge based on. Perhaps elaborate on your points, especially on the term 'instinct'. We haven't lost any biological instincts, we have gained them over time.

Cynic- Btw, we didn't evolve from monkeys, we evolved from apes.

We know that mankind evolved from apes. Apes have instincts to help avoid natural disasters. How did humans lose such useful instincts?

ok summit i used the wrong word, and the whole tail thing was a joke anyway.

but what insticts do we have summit? we have basic parental instincts, but not much else, animals appear to be much more sensitive to the weather, they almost seem to know when the weather is going to be bad, in advance, so they can get out of the way. humans have to learn that ability, or use meteorolgical technology.

Ok, lets start with the term 'instinct', to help settle some confusion. "Instinct' means the inherent disposition of a living organism toward a particular behavior. Instinct is pre-programmed, and happens automatically (such as a baby sucking on it's mothers nipples for energy). Much of human behaviour is an instinct, because it is inherited genetically, environmentally and through general conditioning. Instinct is one of the most vital traits of any organism.

Instincts take generations to adapt. As humans we are instinctfully advanced. Ever thought of the purpose of memory? Memory provides storage of what we experience in our environment. We learn from our experiences because we have memory, and therefore over generations we build up instinct.

Instinct also comes from our hormones, in our endocrine system. Many of our instincts are generated in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland of our brain.

Instinct also comes through our:
- chemoreceptors
- photoreceptors
- thermoreceptors
- mechanoreceptors

Humans have instinctful drives.
- life/death instinct:
- courtship/reproductive instinct
- competition instinct
- fight/flight instinct
- motivational forces
- reflex instincts
- face perception
- language instincts
- emotions especially disgust
- Altruism (ethical instinct)

Humans do have a natural instinct for fight/flight, during/before/after a natural disaster. We are also advanced enough to use technology as a tool to help to cope with natural conditions. However no organism is bound by absolute instinct.

Still in regards to weather and natural disasters animals clearly have a better understanding because they use instinct. We have satellites, gps etc and yet our weather forecast is often incorrect. But then you look at say a spider. They just know it's going to rain through their instinct. If evolution is correct then we were once apes and thus had these instincts for weather and natural disasters. Perhaps some individuals still carry such instincts. Personally I think natives are a good possibility. Or often in life we just think too hard. Maybe we just need to trust how we feel at a certain time.

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For instance before the tsunami struck Sri Lanka and other near by areas the animals instinctively knew to get to higher ground.

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I read somewhere that animals follow the magnetic waves that surround the earth. Before the tsunami there was a change in the electromagnetic waves that they could feel.

I imagine if we were more intuned to the earth we could have felt it also.

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Still in regards to weather and natural disasters animals clearly have a better understanding because they use instinct.

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Perhaps it has something to do with humans living most of the time indoors for hundreds of years. Maybe we've just lost touch with nature.