Where does instinct stop and high level cognition and self awareness begin? What makes deliberate thought inherently different from instinct?
>books and journals for these questions
>>7703918
Awareness of our own existence and self-reflection is something necessary, but not sufficient I think to move from instinct toward self-awareness.
Humans are one of the few species that are able to recognize themselves in a mirror
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_stage
and sometimes they don't. I've met some truly mentally disabled kills that are unable to recognize themselves in mirrors.
I think Hegel gives in the Phenomenology (or was it in the Philosophy of Right?) the movements from consciousness to self-consciousness. If we consider a Hegelian answer, deliberate thought is different from instinct in the fact that instinct moves the subject to satisfy a specific desire because of the object of desire while for the self-conscious subject the desire itself in a context with others is the object of desire, this is, it is deliberate as long as I take into account, even in the slightest form, my relation with others in the consummation of my desire (they will think good or bad of me, it leaves me in an empowered position or subjugated to them, etc). Instinctive thought dies within the object, and has no immediate relation with other people.
