Intention vs Instinct - What's the difference?
intention | instinct |
A course of action that a person intends to follow.
:
*(Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784) (but see
*:Hell is paved with good intentions .
*
*:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
*{{quote-book, year=1935, author=
, title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=3
, passage=It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me.
The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.
:
(lb) Tension; straining, stretching.
*, I.iii.3:
*:cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].
A stretching or bending of the mind toward of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
*(John Locke) (1632-1705)
*:Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea.
(lb) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
*1732 , (John Arbuthnot),
*:In a Word, the most part of chronical Distempers proceed from Laxity of Fibres; in which Case the principal Intention is to restore the Tone of the solid Parts;.
(lb) Any mental apprehension of an object.
(lb) The process of the healing of a wound.
*2007 , Carie Ann Braun, ?Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health ,
*:When healing occurs by primary intention , the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.
(Webster 1913)
A natural or inherent impulse or behaviour.
* Shakespeare
* {{quote-book
, year=1921
, title=
, author=Bertrand Russell
, passage=In spite of these qualifications, the broad distinction between instinct and habit is undeniable. To take extreme cases, every animal at birth can take food by instinct, before it has had opportunity to learn; on the other hand, no one can ride a bicycle by instinct, though, after learning, the necessary movements become just as automatic as if they were instinctive.}}
An intuitive reaction not based on rational conscious thought.
(archaic) Imbued, charged ((with) something).
* Milton
* Brougham
* 1928 , (HP Lovecraft), ‘The Call of Cthulhu’:
As nouns the difference between intention and instinct
is that intention is a course of action that a person intends to follow while instinct is a natural or inherent impulse or behaviour.As an adjective instinct is
(archaic) imbued, charged ((with) something).intention
English
(wikipedia intention)Alternative forms
* entention (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)Apocryhpha)
George Goodchild
An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments …, Prop. II, p.159:
p.49:
Derived terms
* intentional * the road to hell is paved with good intentions * well-intentionedinstinct
English
(wikipedia instinct)Noun
- Many animals fear fire by instinct .
- By a divine instinct , men's minds mistrust / Ensuing dangers.
- an instinct''' for order; to be modest by '''instinct
- Debbie's instinct was to distrust John.
Derived terms
* instinctively * instinctiveAdjective
(en adjective)- The chariot of paternal deity / Itself instinct with spirit, but convoyed / By four cherubic shapes.
- a noble performance, instinct with sound principle
- This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters.