*Close...though not spot-on....but enough to get you a pass mark :)*

Fair enough, Poirot. I was not too sure about the armpits :)

Indeed we are a manipulative species, but not the only one. We
simply have the ability to think more. That's why I've enjoyed
reading about primatology, its a leveller. It makes you realise
that humans are not as special as they think they are. In my
experience, the less people know about other primates, the more
they think that we are special.

Neuroscience is interesting, because it deals with this
think/feel conflict and how the brain deals with it. It puzzled
me that I could feel one thing and think another, about the same
topic. So I set out to understand that a bit better.

*C'mon Yabs what about it?*

Pelican, you voyeur you! I think I told you, first you have to
do the Miss January spread in the OLO nudie calender for charity :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oMmLWdKz70

There your go Lexi, the power of human instinct!

Of course learning to drive is learned, but instinct protects you.
To understand it, learn about the role of the amygala. You see
danger, your heart beats faster and your react, long before you
think. Joseph LeDoux did some great work on all this and its well
published.

Lexi, humans are not the only ones who can be trained to think
a certain way, at certain times. Even my sheep dogs are trained
to leave the stock alone, unless ordered otherwise. So they
chase rabbits or parrots to keep themselves amused. But lurking
beneath all that good behaviour lies their instinct. My dogs
would never starve, they are related to wolves after all.

I remember reading of doting mothers who were going to change the world,
by giving their boys dolls to play with. They were horrified
when they turned them into soldiers.

So my point remains. You can train people to believe all sorts of
things, but invariably their natural instincts will surface,
especially in times of survival of themselves and those close to
them.

Some years ago, there was a woman in my social circle, who had
no kids, as agreed with her partner and kept reminding us, how great
they had it, 2 Dinks doing so well. One day, totally unexpectedly
to everyone including her partner, she ran off with what was close
to a stranger. The reason? The instinctive urge to have kids.
What she thought and felt were in conflict. That is why its such
an interesting topic.

Yabby,

It's useful to ponder the differences and similarities between humans and other apes. One of the things that sets us apart is our ability and opportunity to ruminate - to contemplate our condition.

The contemporary philosopher Ortega Y Gasset wrote this in his tract "The Self and the Other":

"But the ape is so like ourselves that it invites us to pursue the comparison, to discover more concrete and more fertile differences.

If we are to remain still for a time in passive contemplation of the simian scene, one of its characteristics will presently, and as if spontaneously, become dominant and strike us like a flash of lightening. And this is that the infernal little beasts are constantly on the alert, perpetually uneasy, looking and listening for all the signals that reach them from their surroundings, intent upon their environment as if they feared some constant peril in it.... The creature, in short, lives in perpetual fear of the world.....it is the objects and events in its surroundings which govern the animal's life, which pull it and push it about like a marionette.
....Observe that this marvellous faculty which man possesses of temporarily freeing himself from his slavery to things implies two very different powers: one, his ability to ignore the world for a greater or less time without fatal risk; the other, his having somewhere to take his stand, to be, when he has virtually left the world..... a "within", an "intus, the inwardness of man, his "self", which is principally made up of ideas."

Food for thought.

*And this is that the infernal little beasts are constantly on the alert, perpetually uneasy, looking and listening for all the signals that reach them from their surroundings *

Poirot, that was clearly written by a philosopher and not an
observant primatologist, for it's not the case.

Yes, it applies to some primate species in some conditions, but
depends on environment and species. Species which happen to
be lunch for eagles, chimps, etc, are very much on the alert.
But take a species like the bonobo, where there are no threats
around, not much worries them and they are relaxed as any
philosopher. They are also our closest relative in terms of
dna.

Humans too, are not that relaxed, when their life is threatened.

Dear Yabby,

I would recommend that you re-read my previous post and make a note of
things like simple reflexes, basic drives and so on - as opposed to
instincts.

Our behaviour is a product of an interaction between our basic biological heritage and the learning experiences of the particular culture in which we happen to live. For example, we have the biological capacity to speak, but which language we use and how we use it depends on our environment. We have the biological capacity to laugh, to cry, to blush, to become angry, but the circumstances under which we might do any of these things are learned. Nature provides us with legs, but we are not obliged to use them only for walking. We can use them to kick a ball, ride a bicycle, dance, cover with pants, or sit cross-legged while contemplating.

Most modern psychologists agree that human beings do not have "instincts," sorry if I'm repeating myself here. An "instinct"
is a behaviour pattern with three essential features: it is complex, it is unlearned, and it appears in all normal members of the species under identical conditions. For example, all members of some bird or insect species will build complex nests of exactly the same type, even if they have never seen such nests built before, as soon as the nesting season begins. Any instincts we once had, however, have been
lost in the course of our evolution.

Yabby, you need to do more reading. The higher the animal, the more it can learn and the less it depends on instinct. Fish behave more by instinct than do birds, and birds perform more instinctive actions than do mammals. Animals that can learn only a little so their survival depends on built-in-behaviour patterns. But in human beings most of their behaviour is learned.

Yabby,

It was fairly plain in meaning that what Ortega was alluding to is that man's ability to manipulate his environment and tame the wilderness (to a greater or lesser extent) furnishes him with advantage in the form of extended relaxation from the perils of nature.

Of course he reacts with fright, flight or aggression when he is threatened - that is instinctual.

Lexi,

Thanks for the movie tip - sounds good. Will look it up.