For long, we thought that knowing belonged to the act of thinking and thinking to the human only and so, knowing was the domain of sapiens, and it was what set us free.
Beautifully written Renee! The image of you breaking into tears with your I-Thou encounter with innocence and instinct lingers with me. I live in wonder and reflection of how this great turn in western modern thinking towards the elevation of the intellect and suppression of other ways of knowing, has been a “wrong turn”. We have gotten lost on our way to becoming. In your deeply integrative writing I experience a Self correction.
I love your ability to discredit Aristotle - the more I hear from these old-philosophers - it seems the more we need to reduce their vestigial holds they have created in our pondering psyches - (and the zeitgeist, if I am to bring it that far) ... "let us not forget Freud, yet forgive him in his errors"
This essay (paired with the philosophy of one read prior) - brings to mind that
Awareness - holds the higher intelligence.
Awareness to the small actions - as a baby seeking bosom - and what that means to us. (To me, it brings the seeking of comfort - the childlike and absolutely youthlike significance of 'Being with another' - support)
Awareness to the bodies instinct - as a chronic illness in healing - there is so little we have been taught in the patchwork of bodywork. So disperse and unique to the individuals story - that the suckling teat knows as much to feed as to be feeder - intertwined in cosmology to the child's own body system - nourishing present and preparing to nourish for the rest of it's life.
Awareness to what this means in-between us - writers and readers - concepts and creation - your body.mind wanderings to my body.mind intake... to what can be taken out...
“While intelligence treats everything mechanically, instinct proceeds, so to speak, organically.”
So states Henri Bergson in his writings in Creative Evolution, a book which coincidentally we have touched on in French literature recently and perhaps you know far better than I dear Renée…
Being organic of nature, I can understand this concept perhaps more easily than any other, he further states;
“If the consciousness that slumbers in it should awake, if it were wound up into knowledge instead of being wound off into action, if we could ask and it could reply, it would give up to us the most intimate secrets of life. For it only carries out further the work by which life organizes matter–so that we cannot say, as has often been shown, where organization ends and where instinct begins”
What can be more secretly instinctual than a baby seeking a mothers breast? Or more instinctual to shed tears at the sheer and simple and utterly profound beauty of that, I would have shed tears by your side were I there with you… and they would have been instinctual, unstoppable as were your own.
We are an arrogant race, and I touched on this for different reasons replying to another post recently, we harbour beliefs that are unfounded in either science or nature and yet we cannot let go of them. I cannot say which, of instinct or intelligence can be said to be the more natural, for surely, instinct being organic, is almost impossible to dissect where as intelligence can be gauged.
Thank you dearest Renée for this deeply thoughtful reflection, as always with love xx
It makes sense that instinct is either innocent or amoral - immeasurable in moral terms. It takes will to have culpability. For all that we are subject to judge and be judged, it is nice to think of some of our actions (instinct) as safe from judgment. I’m interested in where you take this line of thinking/feeling.
I think the reason we look at instinct as somehow inferior to intelligence is that we often look at animals (excluding us) and think that they operate mostly on instinct whereas we have this frontal cortex providing intelligence. And that allows us to feel superior to the rest of the animal kingdom, which is delusional in my thinking. It's part of our arrogance that allows us to herd, raise, and slaughter animals for our food while they passively allow it, or capture them and place them in zoos for our pleasure. It's what allows us as humans to feel separate from the rest of the animal world, and therefore we can do what we want with them, as we please. I believe this is part of our undoing as a species. Rather than use our intelligence to be stewards of the world and all that is in it, we use it to exploit the earth and its inhabitants. This idea of instinct vs intelligence is pretty interesting to ponder. We look at dolphins, for instance, and admire them because they are clearly "intelligent", meaning more like us; whereas, "lower" animals we look at with disdain to some degree, thinking they're just automatons, operating on instinct. I think I'm guilty of that tendency myself now that I'm looking straight at it. As for your example, Renée, of weeping upon seeing the baby; and asking if that is intelligence or instinct. You were emotionally moved to tears, and that, I think, is a form of emotional intelligence. However, perhaps instinct as well; as it brings forth a warmth and affection toward an innocent human, designed to provoke a nurturing response; one that will care for the baby and not harm the baby; a response necessary for perpetuating the species. Instinct is just as much a part of the human species as intelligence; it's just not seen that way or appreciated. I think if we were to do so, we'd see everything, including plants, as having both instinct and intelligence, which would alter our way of relating to everything, wouldn't it? Mary Oliver knew this well. "When I am among the trees...around me the trees stir with their leaves and call out, "Stay awhile"... and they call again, "and you too have come here to do this; do go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine."
Truly beautiful, my friend! As always, you've enlivened my mind. Thoughts swirl and I'm not sure which to grab first. We had a gorgeous discussion about the soul (one of my favorite conversations ever!) and I said then that I believe the body is part of the multi-part soul. Along those lines, instinct must be a form of intelligence. Last night my son was in a car accident. He's doing fine now. After many phone calls and even more text messages...I guess once I knew for sure he was ok...I began to weep. It was much like you described when you saw the baby. I knew it to be a wholly bodily response. It was not a reaction to my thoughts, but something my body simply needed to do. This happens a lot in my healing work with the dead too (a topic for another time). One other thing that comes to mind here is that I recently listened to a podcast about artificial intelligence. An author (whose name escapes me now) was being interviewed and he said that humans seem to have a need to create a model of something before they fully understand it. He gave the example of maps and globes to understand space. And then he said that he believes artificial intelligence functions this way for us. It is through creating a model of intelligence that we might come to understand it, and then recognize it within all the beings and systems around us, including within the earth itself. I thought that sounded so hopeful! ♥️
Beautifully written Renee! The image of you breaking into tears with your I-Thou encounter with innocence and instinct lingers with me. I live in wonder and reflection of how this great turn in western modern thinking towards the elevation of the intellect and suppression of other ways of knowing, has been a “wrong turn”. We have gotten lost on our way to becoming. In your deeply integrative writing I experience a Self correction.
I love your ability to discredit Aristotle - the more I hear from these old-philosophers - it seems the more we need to reduce their vestigial holds they have created in our pondering psyches - (and the zeitgeist, if I am to bring it that far) ... "let us not forget Freud, yet forgive him in his errors"
This essay (paired with the philosophy of one read prior) - brings to mind that
Awareness - holds the higher intelligence.
Awareness to the small actions - as a baby seeking bosom - and what that means to us. (To me, it brings the seeking of comfort - the childlike and absolutely youthlike significance of 'Being with another' - support)
Awareness to the bodies instinct - as a chronic illness in healing - there is so little we have been taught in the patchwork of bodywork. So disperse and unique to the individuals story - that the suckling teat knows as much to feed as to be feeder - intertwined in cosmology to the child's own body system - nourishing present and preparing to nourish for the rest of it's life.
Awareness to what this means in-between us - writers and readers - concepts and creation - your body.mind wanderings to my body.mind intake... to what can be taken out...
“While intelligence treats everything mechanically, instinct proceeds, so to speak, organically.”
So states Henri Bergson in his writings in Creative Evolution, a book which coincidentally we have touched on in French literature recently and perhaps you know far better than I dear Renée…
Being organic of nature, I can understand this concept perhaps more easily than any other, he further states;
“If the consciousness that slumbers in it should awake, if it were wound up into knowledge instead of being wound off into action, if we could ask and it could reply, it would give up to us the most intimate secrets of life. For it only carries out further the work by which life organizes matter–so that we cannot say, as has often been shown, where organization ends and where instinct begins”
What can be more secretly instinctual than a baby seeking a mothers breast? Or more instinctual to shed tears at the sheer and simple and utterly profound beauty of that, I would have shed tears by your side were I there with you… and they would have been instinctual, unstoppable as were your own.
We are an arrogant race, and I touched on this for different reasons replying to another post recently, we harbour beliefs that are unfounded in either science or nature and yet we cannot let go of them. I cannot say which, of instinct or intelligence can be said to be the more natural, for surely, instinct being organic, is almost impossible to dissect where as intelligence can be gauged.
Thank you dearest Renée for this deeply thoughtful reflection, as always with love xx
It makes sense that instinct is either innocent or amoral - immeasurable in moral terms. It takes will to have culpability. For all that we are subject to judge and be judged, it is nice to think of some of our actions (instinct) as safe from judgment. I’m interested in where you take this line of thinking/feeling.
I think the reason we look at instinct as somehow inferior to intelligence is that we often look at animals (excluding us) and think that they operate mostly on instinct whereas we have this frontal cortex providing intelligence. And that allows us to feel superior to the rest of the animal kingdom, which is delusional in my thinking. It's part of our arrogance that allows us to herd, raise, and slaughter animals for our food while they passively allow it, or capture them and place them in zoos for our pleasure. It's what allows us as humans to feel separate from the rest of the animal world, and therefore we can do what we want with them, as we please. I believe this is part of our undoing as a species. Rather than use our intelligence to be stewards of the world and all that is in it, we use it to exploit the earth and its inhabitants. This idea of instinct vs intelligence is pretty interesting to ponder. We look at dolphins, for instance, and admire them because they are clearly "intelligent", meaning more like us; whereas, "lower" animals we look at with disdain to some degree, thinking they're just automatons, operating on instinct. I think I'm guilty of that tendency myself now that I'm looking straight at it. As for your example, Renée, of weeping upon seeing the baby; and asking if that is intelligence or instinct. You were emotionally moved to tears, and that, I think, is a form of emotional intelligence. However, perhaps instinct as well; as it brings forth a warmth and affection toward an innocent human, designed to provoke a nurturing response; one that will care for the baby and not harm the baby; a response necessary for perpetuating the species. Instinct is just as much a part of the human species as intelligence; it's just not seen that way or appreciated. I think if we were to do so, we'd see everything, including plants, as having both instinct and intelligence, which would alter our way of relating to everything, wouldn't it? Mary Oliver knew this well. "When I am among the trees...around me the trees stir with their leaves and call out, "Stay awhile"... and they call again, "and you too have come here to do this; do go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine."
Truly beautiful, my friend! As always, you've enlivened my mind. Thoughts swirl and I'm not sure which to grab first. We had a gorgeous discussion about the soul (one of my favorite conversations ever!) and I said then that I believe the body is part of the multi-part soul. Along those lines, instinct must be a form of intelligence. Last night my son was in a car accident. He's doing fine now. After many phone calls and even more text messages...I guess once I knew for sure he was ok...I began to weep. It was much like you described when you saw the baby. I knew it to be a wholly bodily response. It was not a reaction to my thoughts, but something my body simply needed to do. This happens a lot in my healing work with the dead too (a topic for another time). One other thing that comes to mind here is that I recently listened to a podcast about artificial intelligence. An author (whose name escapes me now) was being interviewed and he said that humans seem to have a need to create a model of something before they fully understand it. He gave the example of maps and globes to understand space. And then he said that he believes artificial intelligence functions this way for us. It is through creating a model of intelligence that we might come to understand it, and then recognize it within all the beings and systems around us, including within the earth itself. I thought that sounded so hopeful! ♥️