Is our conscience simply instinct? Since we are intelligent why is it necessary to have automatic thinking?

Question

Why do we have fear? Why do we have a conscience? As intelligent beings should'nt we be able to do what we want without having these automatic sensations? Is our conscience and our fear simply a holdover from a more primitive time in our existence?

Doctor Why, I see your point but I fear you may be missing mine. Pehaps I did not articulate it clear enough. What I am talking about are automatic thoughts that have an effect on our intelligence. In essence I am talking about thoughts that attempt to undermine our free will.

Answer 1

First of all, I want to dispute one of the premises in your question - the idea that automatic sensations (and, by extension, thoughts and even actions) are bad. Quite the contrary, they are very, very good.

Case in point: there lives a gentlemen (Ian Waterman, to be precise) who has lost all proprioceptive sense - he has no knowledge at all where any of his body parts are. He can and does live a very full life, but unlike you or I he cannot move any part of his body unless he is looking at it. He has to think about the exact movements necessary in order to pick up a paper clip or to walk down the street. And if he ever becomes distracted, even for a moment, he can't (sometimes even falling down).

Or, to carry that to an even further extreme, imagine having to instruct your heart to beat continually lest it stop. Or even having to do a boring task and concentrate on the last repetition to the same degree you have to concentrate on the first. No, thanks!

Having your brain do things for you frees up the rest of your brain for other stuff. Like thinking.

We can also look at the other extreme. There are many, many decisions that arise that simply provide you with no time for thought. If you're speeding down the road in a car and a child walks into your path, you don't have time to consider all the ehtical and moral possibilities that might arise from running the brat down. Likewise if a semi pulls into your path. You need to act, and you need to act IMMEDIATELY.

These are automatic responses that fear and conscience are great for. And they are great time-savers in a general sense.

But you are right - problems do sometimes occur when people allow these automatic responses to dominate their behaviour to the EXCLUSION of thinking. Me, I like to try and think about as many possible situation ahead of time so my automatics are set appropriately, but I know that not everybody does this. And even so, sometimes I find things set a little off anyway. So it goes.

Fear, at least, seems to be a holdover in that we can see its pervasiveness in the animal kingdom, though I don't think the same can be said for conscience. Scientists actually have tracked down an 'oops' centre in the human brain which identifies when a really negative outcome is anticipated. This is not found in the more 'primitive' sections, but is right in the forebrain, and requires a certain amount of training as well.

I wouldn't worry too much about the whole free will question if I were you. You don't have it. If the function of your brain can be altered by what was on that sandwich you just ate, I wouldn't rely on it for anything important. Just enjoy the ride and stop worrying about what would happen if the tracks were laid out differently. ( :

Answer 2

Wow...that is waay to hard a question to answer in just this little amount of time we have on earth. Then again isnt every question? You should read John Wesley and C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity.......they talk about instict and conscience....I ahve too many opinions on this that I dont have time or space to say, but here is something to think about.

How would you define conscience? Isnt is the knowing of what is good and bad...not a herd instinct of danger
And if this is so then doesnt man need something to help with what is considered good and what is bad or the world would be in utter chaos

maybe you dont exactly know what the purpose of conscience is and that is why you are getting confused.....

Answer 3

Is not fear a good thing? perhaps after we learn what it is, it might be toned down a bit, but is it not fear that keeps us alive in certain situations. Is it not my fear of being hit by a bus that causes my reflex to remove me from that situation? Is it not fear that tells me to run or defend when approached by an attacker? If we had no conscience would we not have killed each other by now? Is conscience not the part that makes me stop and think first, allowing me time to think about shooting a person and taking his money giving me an opportunity to evaluate what it is I am about to do and if it is right or wrong.
Free will does exist, it is the part the lets me decide if I want to eat that sandwich.

Answer 4

Intellegence in not always common sense. I know this quite well. I think conscience and instinct are two different things, the conscience being influenced by personal morals and views, and insticts as being... important to our survival I suppose. Instincts are less needed in this day and age, and eventually there will be no need for them, in my personal opinion. Let me loop back now... Automatic thinking helps us make good [for the most part] decisions quickly, for those moment when thinking it through logically would take to long, get us killed, or something else undesirable. I dont know if I made sense to you, and if not and you care for me to explain further, you can go to my page an contact me. Good day!

Answer 5

i've thought about this before when wondering about religion. what i believe is that the fact that religion exists keeps our consciences running... even if you aren't sure what you believe, like me, or you don't believe in any form of "faith" in greater powers, knowing that it exists for soem will keep you under your conscience's bind. as a common example, christianity teaches you that you must abide by certain general rules and morals, or you will go to hell. the fact that, after life, there may be something else--beyond our lives--is something that keeps many people on "track" with what is greatly believed to be correct. knowing that, if we commit great wrongs [as is forbidden or frowned upon in not only society, but most religions] we may go to hell or some other afterlife like it, we keep our lives minimally "bad" in order to have a better life after life [i.e. heaven or similar concepts]. and i thought all of this up at thirteen... haha

Answer 6

I believe that automatic thoughts have an effect on our actions not our intelligence. Fear does trigger the fight or flight response but it also can alert us to real dangers. As intelligent beings we have the capacity to use our consciousness to reduce automatic thoughts and have a greater freedom to respond to our environment vs reacting to it.

Answer 7

I think that conscience is the result of the ethics that were part of the way you were raised.

If ethics was not part of your upbringing, you most likely will not have much of a conscience.

I would say that pretty much the same can be said, for fear.

Answer 8

Conscience comes from our will of free choice, the ability of choosing our response to a situation.
Fear comes from our lack of knowledge or primitive insticts that of as yet to be known.

Answer 9

hard to say, our conscience enables us to recognize our instinct.
In a way all thoughts are automatic, from chaos, comes ordered thought,impulsive or intended. With practice however, as intelligent beings we do have the ability to control our thoughts and emotions...
Although they come from chaos?
good question.

Answer 10

a million. Having a puzzling time information issues from a non-human engineered perspective. 2. desiring existence to be better romantic and mysterious. 3. no longer liking to be devoid of each and every of the solutions. that is strange how we favor to have each and every of the solutions and yet choose secret collectively. that is only a fashion of information the international that is smart to people because that is the way people might want to do it.