Do humans have instincts or is everything a result of our environment?

Answer 1

According to what scientists currently say, humans have no instincts.

For example, baby sea turtles know to move toward the water from the shore where their eggs have been laid by nature. This is an INSTINCT. Humans, however, have no such natural behavior. All supposed instincts which some people may tell you, are not actually instincts, but simply learned responses to stimulus.

Correct, most of those are reflexes; which are not the same as instincts.

Humans DO NOT have instinct! We have response and learned response. Instinct does not exist in our DNA. As for babies squeezing a finger that is a response to something being in their hand. An instinct to squeeze a finger would mean that babies would run around and find a finger to squeeze and would not ever let go, unless forced. In which case they would then move on to another finger. As for "sucking" it is a response from their stomach being empty and telling the brain it is hungry. Read a book!

The following comment supporting the idea that humans have instinct is wrong.

[Sex is not a learned response. How did the first humans mate without the general knowledge of others? Because it's an instinct.]

Hominids (the first humans), did have instincts, because their ancestors (primates) from which they evolved and were still closely linked DO have instincts. Hominids retained some of the instincts from their primate ancestors. However, MODERN DAY HUMANS DO NOT HAVE INSTINCTS. This is a scientifically proven fact that is irrefutable. Any other comments that humans do have instincts are simply misinformed opinion.

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Humans have lost instincts. Early hominids may have had instincts, for they were still somewhat closely related to primates, which do have instincts. However, modern day humans DO NOT have instincts.

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Answer 2

Yes, humans do have instincts that guide their lives. Some of these instincts are developed in us through the conditions of our childhood and are reinforced through similar circumstances as we mature. Others are developed in us by the cultural norms in which we live. Lastly there are instincts that are common to everyone in the human race. They are part of the human design and are put there by a diety, or evolution, or something else outside of the "control" of the race itself.

Answer 3

The answer to this question rests solely on one's definition of "human". Meaning that if I define a human as being me and only me, and I have no perception of any instinct within myself, then the answer will be no.

However when we expand the boundary to include all humans, the numbers change; but again, only in the numbers who define what it is to be human. Some who find racial purity to be of great importance may find others who don't share the same race to be inferior - while some people treat their own pets like children, as if they share their soul. These latter groups may feel that animals have souls like people, and may even identify them as human. Therefore now the boundary is expanded.

Still others might identify humans as every living thing and form, each of equal importance in the world; none greater or lesser in the eyes of the creator.

Therefore it is completely dependent upon your own personal perspective, based upon who or what it is that you in your own heart consider to be - human.

Humans, then, may have no instincts; or all the instincts of all living things across all spectrums of time and space.

Next question should be: what is a human?