Animals cooperate at times, as in herds, troups and packs. One can see our instincts as our "animal" aspects, and that we also have an instinct for cooperation.

Animals cooperate at times, as in herds, troups and packs. One can see our instincts as our "animal" aspects, and that we also have an instinct for cooperation. An example is language, which being learnt unconsciously by children is arguably an instinct. Language is primarily used for cooperation. One can further see our emotions as being based on instincts, and clearly we have cooperative emotions and destructive emotions. Though sometimes labeled as "higher" or "lower" emotions, both are emotions. Secondly, our instincts do delegate perceptual control to our intellectual selves: e.g. if we can work out who the bad guy is, our anger is directed at that person. We can even talk ourselves into all sorts of things! Though we have no choice in having instincts, we have great influence in applying them.