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The man owes its rationality and intelligence to the soul

1. Intelligence is an essential attribute of the Spirit, in which he acknowledges its own existence and exercises volunteer and free activities. When the Spirit reaches the degree of humanization, its intelligence acquires higher development, as the beginning of reason and moral sense, which enable him the capacity to conceive the existence of God. 

2. Accomplishing many volunteer and free activities, showing a clear definition and obeying well-elaborated reasoning, man is a being who reveals double nature: material and spiritual. Don’t forget that there is a soul united to the body of man and only to it they owe their intelligence and rationality, their knowledge and feelings, as well as their will and freedom. 

3. There are, however, beings that accomplish facts in which a clear definition is also showed, but they seem to obey automatisms rather than free-will. Such acts happen mainly because of the conservation of the individual and the species, aiming the focus of eating and reproduction, providing for growth, development and spreading, after all, in the plenitude of life.  

4. These acts happen because of instinct – they are called instinctive acts. They are in the plants, but are clearer in animals, as well as in the human species, and occur, whether it’s in the man or the animals, beside the intelligent acts.

Intelligence and instinct come from the same place

5. What is the difference between instinct and intelligence? Is instinct a rudimental intelligence or a distinct faculty? If it were like this, we had to admit that matter is also intelligent, which is a lie. Well, if the instinctive act lacks the main character of the intelligent act, which is deliberate, reveals, though, an intelligent cause, because enables to foresee and avoid the mistake, which has taken many scholars to admit that instinct and intelligence come from the same principle, which initially would only have qualities of instinct and later on would develop, evolve and would go through a transformation which would give them intelligence. 

6. This last hypothesis falls for an in-depth study, because mainly instinct and intelligence are found together in the same being, sometimes, in the same act. When we walk, for example, it is instinctive the simple movement of legs, in the man and the animal – one foot behind the other. But as they speed up or slow down, as well as deviating an obstacle, will appears, deliberation and calculation. Likewise, the carnivorous animal is taken by the instinct to eat, but acts with intelligence and even cunning when it needs be. 

7. In face of that we say that instinct is a kind of intelligence, while others say that is intelligence with no reasoning. Fact is that many times it is difficult to set a clear definition between instinct and intelligence, a fine line to walk. 

8. Intelligence and instinct – and this is the common opinion – are manifestations of the same spiritual principle, obeying two different masters or two different engines: one linked to the individual and his freedom, and another one completely different. In this sense, we can perfectly distinguish acts which depend on intelligence from the ones of instinct.

Intelligent acts get better with the time

9. Being intelligence, in its plenitude, the faculty of thinking and acting rationally and deliberately, intelligent acts are on purpose, volunteer, free and calculated. They are, besides, susceptible to variations, because intelligence, variable and individual, is susceptible to progress. Intelligent acts happen from learning and from learning they get better, which does not happen to instincts.  

10. Let’s see the example of the duck: as soon as he breaks the egg shell in which he was in, he sees a lake or creek, runs towards it and ends up in the water, swimming immediately perfectly. Where has the duck learned to swim? They are also instinctive the acts by the beaver, which builds his house with earth, water and branches of trees; the act of the birds, which build their nests perfectly; the spider, who waves its cobweb precisely. We can see some characters of instinct: it is something inborn, perfect and specific, it means, it happens spontaneously, with no previous learning, in all the individuals of the same species and leads to complete acts, finished, perfect, since the very first time.  

11. We verify, however, these acts keep happening with no changes. This capacity to swim, build, wave does not suffer variations through the times, so the same way the beaver built his house like his ancestor did, the same will apply to this beaver’s descendents.  As for the men, on the contrary, it is evident the evolution in the way and usage of the tools, because they come from intelligent acts, subjected to will and freedom, variable according to circumstances, which is a characteristic of intelligent acts.  

12. Man also owes his conservation and maintenance to instinctive acts, and not only the intelligent ones. We remember what happens in the first days after the birth of a kid, which, the same way goes with the babies of the mammals, sucking the maternal milk, without previous knowledge. Bloodstream, the digestive system and so many other functions in the human being are also result of the force of instinct. 

Answer Key

1. What is intelligence? A.: Intelligence is an essential attribute of the Spirit, in which he acknowledges its own existence and exercises volunteer and free activities. When the Spirit reaches the degree of humanization, its intelligence acquires higher development, as the beginning of reason and moral sense, which enable him the capacity to conceive the existence of God.

2. Can we say that the man has a double nature? A.: Yes. Don’t forget that there is a soul united to the body of man and only to it they owe their intelligence and rationality, their knowledge and feelings, as well as their will and freedom. 

3. What are instinctive acts? A.: There are, however, beings that accomplish facts in which a clear definition is also showed, but they seem to obey automatisms rather than free-will. Such acts happen mainly because of the conservation of the individual and the species, aiming the focus of eating and reproduction, providing for growth, development and spreading, after all, in the plenitude of life. 

4. What is the difference between instinctive acts and intelligent ones? A.: Being intelligence, in its plenitude, the faculties of thinking and acting rationally and deliberately, intelligent acts are on purpose, volunteer, free and calculated. They are, besides, susceptible to variations, because intelligence, variable and individual, is susceptible to progress. Intelligent acts happen from learning and from learning they get better, which does not happen to instincts.  

5. Is it right to say that animals owe their lives to instinct and man lives thanks to intelligence?  A.: No. Man also owes his conservation and maintenance to instinctive acts, and not only the intelligent ones. We remember what happens in the first days after the birth of a kid, which, the same way goes with the babies of the mammals, sucking the maternal milk, without previous knowledge. Bloodstream, the digestive system and so many other functions in the human being are also result of the force of instinct.