Instinctive Judgment Essay

There are many ways we can experience the world around us. Ways of knowing and instinctive judgment are two very different ways we can react to situations. Ways of knowing are how we acquire knowledge about the world around us. Whilst on the other hand, instinctive judgment is a biological deeply rooted response that we have naturally as humans. We know that instinctive judgment comes first; it is often the first wave of reaction that comes after a particular event. Although we know this, there is still a complex relationship between the two. We have the “Elephant and Rider” metaphor that attempts to understand this connection. It states that although the rider (AOK) has full control most of the time, the elephant (IJ) has final say if it

Reason is how we think about something in a logical manner. It is the complete opposite what instinctive judgment is. Our instincts in this context are natural intuitive power. If we can picture coming home late at night, nobody around and arriving at the point where we have to walk down a dark alley in a bad part of town to get home. Also there is one man coming from the other side slowly walking in your direction. This is an example of where instinctive judgment is used to show danger. Without any real knowledge of whom the man is, we automatically associate him as “suspicious”. Here is where the fight or flight response will occur. Our instincts tell us either to run away and avoid danger, or they could tell us to prepare to fight and defend ourselves. This is one instance where the use of ways of knowing, specifically reason, are a check on our instinctive judgments. What our reason will tell us is that it’s dark, unknown, suspicious, and that the fact that it is in the bad part of town will suggest there is more crime likely to occur. Reason will enrich our perception of this particular situation as a dangerous one. This is because our instinctive judgments have already told us that this is a hostile environment, our reason was then used after this to further support the first instinctual response. This is when we are more likely to make an educated guess of our risks, and we will then follow with an informed decision to the best of our