ABSTRACT
The primitive instincts of the human animal are practically all social. It is at best a difficult task to isolate and define human instincts, but whatever group one gathers together is bound to refer to conduct that is determined by the movements of other individuals whose conduct is like our own. Within the field of social consciousness arise gradually objects—social objects, the selves, the author, and the others. The author wish to discuss for a few moments the process by which these objects arise. A recently published list of human instincts, that of William McDougall in his Introduction to Social Psychology, enumerates flight, repulsion, curiosity, pugnacity, subjection, self-assertion, the parental instinct, that of reproduction, the gregarious instinct, and the instincts of acquisition, and construction. If the objects of instinctive flight and curiosity were defined, their predominantly social character would be evident.
