>Do you judge the instinct as ir/rational before or after
>acting on it?
The rationality of instincts can only be judged from within
the context of a host of assumptions about the values of the
animal in question and the nature of the world. For instance,
a deer will freeze when caught in the headlights of a car
on a highway at night. Rational or irrational? I would say
irrational because I don't think it is the intent of the deer
to commit suicide in this manner. But you can imagine that I had
to make a enough assumptions in that anaylsis to fill a book.
And to answer your question, it doesn't matter whether the
judgement is before or after because it applies equally to past
events and future roadkills.
-- David McFadzean david@kumo.com Memetic Engineer http://www.kumo.com/~david/ Kumo Software Corp. http://www.kumo.com