instinctive

instinctive 1 Instinctive, intuitive both mean not involving, based on, or determined by the ordinary processes of reasoning, but as applied to human mentation they are not normally interchangeable because of consistent differences in connotation.

Instinctive in this connection (see also SPONTANEOUS) implies a relation to instinct, the more or less automatic and unreasoned reactive behavior characteristic of a natural group (as a species) rather than of the individual; as applied to human mental activity and behavior instinctive stresses sometimes the automatic quality of the reaction, sometimes the fact that it takes place below the level of conscious reasoning and volition whether as a true expression of instinct or as being through habitude as deeply ingrained as instinct

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a baby may be born with a fear of a loud, sudden noise and a fear of falling. Those things we call instinctive— Fishbein

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while yet a boy he was a thorough little man of the world, and did well rather upon principles which he had tested . . . and recognized as principles, than from those profounder convictions which in his father were so instinctive that he could give no account concerning them— Butler d. 1902

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some of our most inevitable and instinctive sentiments . . . cannot be brought directly under logical laws— Coulton

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Intuitive, correspondingly, indicates relationship to intuition, the highly personal intellectual capacity for passing directly from stimulus to response (as from problem to solution or from observation to comprehension) without the intervention of reasoning or inferring; as applied to the human mind and to products of its activities intuitive suggests activity above and beyond the level of conscious reasoning

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God's thought obviously differs in its character from that of man. The latter . . . proceeds in step-by-step fashion from premise to conclusion; God's thought is entirely intuitive ... it grasps its object by a single flash of insight— Thilly

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every scientific generalization is intuitive, for while the scientist may see a phenomenon just by looking, as at Newton's apple, he must use creative imagination and intuition to relate this apple to the moon and so discover the universal law—G. R. Harrison

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an intuitive mind, passionate in its attempt to capture a great truth in a few words, but impatient of logical sequences— Canby

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Analogous words: *innate, inborn, congenital: constitutional, *inherent, ingrained

Antonyms: reasoned

2 impulsive, *spontaneous, automatic, mechanical

Analogous words: natural, normal, typical, *regular: habitual, customary, wonted, accustomed, *usual

Antonyms: intentional

Contrasted words: *voluntary, deliberate, willful, willing