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Classification of the Sci.
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to the question, What is an instinct? A trio of philosophers more awfully scientific that anything but a modern psychologist can be have put their heads together in Baldwin's Dictionary to produce this definition: An instinct is "an inherited reaction of the sensori-motor type, relatively complex and markedly adaptive in character, and common to a group of individuals." Observe that it is a reaction. To say that it was something implanted in the animal's nature fit to cause a reaction would be highly unscientific, mystical, and metaphysical. No, it is the very reaction itself, and this very reaction is inherited. This is very unmetaphysical, but it will not answer our purpose. We cannot aspire to be very scientific in our rude classification of the sciences. We shall be obliged to content ourselves with the following