The Language Instinct

myself have experienced instinctual behavior. Once I was sitting at the front desk covering someone’s lunch. When a co-worker scared me so bad that I threw my hands up and screamed in terror. Then my co-worker and I looked at my right hand where I was holding a pair of scissors like a knife. This was so crazy to me, I didn’t even know that there were scissors on the desk, let alone in my hand. Biology is stronger than society, it doesn 't necessarily win, but it drives human nature and has to be actively controlled or directed. Human nature still controls many common behaviors, for example: Competitive, Dominant, Territorial, Matting Rituals for men and women, Racist, Cooperative, Communicative, Herding and Instinctual behaviors. What are instincts? Well it’s an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli. (Webster’s) Some may say that humans can stop the instinctual behavior before it starts. However, this is not accurate. How can you stop doing something that you are not even aware that you are doing? Neil Campbell describes it as “The term fixed action pattern (FAP), or modal action pattern, is sometimes used in ethology to denote an instinctive behavioral sequence that is relatively invariant within the species and almost inevitably runs to completion” in the 1996 Biology text book. “We find consistent evidence that genetic risk for adolescent delinquency and violence is largely context dependent: genetic risk is amplified among…

it to justice. Once again, he is faced with rejection and anger from the community that only wants harm him. The creature is found at the mill where he’s captured Victor, but when Victor sees the opportunity to escape he falls to the ground but remains alive. Several of the villagers attend to the scientist and bring him back home, but want to punish the creature entrapped inside the mill, by setting it on fire. The community rushed to judgment that he was a murderer and wanted to punish the…

Animal behavior can be traced to their physical environment habitat and their interactions with other organisms. Throughout the Hitopadesha, in numerous tale stories natural creatures were presented as characters that tried to contrary to their natural perverse behavior. Since animals do not have a developed mind as human beings, animals lack moral compass and are not able to determine what actions are acceptable in various situations. In the Hitopadesha, several animals asserted they have…

‘bad’ things you do, this primal instinct is still inside you and at some point it has to come out. Teenagers make a lot of mistakes, its part of growing up, doing something wrong and learning from it. We mostly make mistakes when we have to do something by ourselves when there is no adult to tell us what to do. Everyone changes in the play but not in the way we first expected. With Cathy, this is…

There is a great deal of evidence for both nature and nurture, so why can’t we realize that both can have an impact? Throughout history, the homo species has had to fight for survival. We as humans, for the most part, do not need to fight for food and shelter, yet some of our animal instincts remain. It is not so crazy to say that humans are effected by nature and the environment they grew up in. As we have seen in Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore, a poisoned family environment can have an…

environment condition that a person is expose to is a determine factor in relation to aggression. The final point to support my argument revolves around Cultural Values and Beliefs. People from different ethnicity, background, social situation, gender, social class etc have different attitudes and views regarding the appropriateness of using aggression or violence. All of these factors makes a person’s belief and values regarding aggression. So with the right values and beliefs with a…

and destructive for humans and animals as we know it. But what is the cause of aggression; is it instinct, the means of self defense, and sexual reproduction (Konrad Lorenz), or is it a trait learned through reinforcement and punishment (E.O Wilson)? Humans have learned to repress their behaviour to comply to the society, does this make them different compared to animals? Pushed to the limits, is when aggression becomes exposed. Although our instinct has become desensitise as we become more…

The most basic form of action and decision-making mechanism within an individual is that of human instinct, which in turn develops one’s integrity. In the lengthy poem of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we learn how one man’s actions develop not, only his integrity, honor, and motivation for self pride, but we also learn that everyone makes mistakes and we are all human. The poem is about a man, Sir Gawain, a member of Arthur’s round table, who takes on a challenge from a mystical and…

Charles Montgomery elaborates in his article “Why We’re Sometimes Kind Without Reason” how people act when they first meet. To us, the first impression is everything and we will be anything just to impress others. Why is it that other people’s opinions always matter the most to us? We let what other humans think of us consume us and all we think and act on is that instinct to make each individual like us. Can you even call yourself an individual if all you do is adjust yourself to other eyes?…

question appears. That question being, are humans, the supposed top of the food chain, the intelligent, superior, and dominant species, inherently, fundamentally, evil? This story would suggest that the answer to that question is yes. The general populous of the human species is indeed, naturally evil. Why are humans so quick to attack the and conquer the weak? Why are humans so comfortable in brainwashing the ignorant to do their bidding? How are humans comfortable wasting while others,…