Humanities Journal

The instinct of self-preservation can be considered as the main instinct, it is directly related to other instincts, such as: the maternal instinct, the instinct of hunger, thirst instinct, instinct of power, sexual instinct, and all of these instincts are responsible for the preserving life and its continuation. Nowadays, in the conditions of scientific and technological progress, man has developed the habitat and is going to develop a new habitat – technosphere, one feature of which is the progressive increase in the amount of dangers, such as: technological, social and political, biomedical, ecological, etc.; thus, in these changed circumstances the instinct of self-preservation can be described as the instinct for safety. The protective mechanisms generated by scientific and technological progress against the danger have not formed for a human in the process of evolution. An example is penetrating radiation, the consequences that may be the cause of death or a significant deterioration in human health. The consequences of penetrating radiation are well acknowledged, since no senses perceiving it and the perceived danger launches the instinct of self-preservation. The foundation of this launch is an instinctive fear for life and health. In the conditions of scientific progress growth rates and the amount of dangers generated by the progress, the instinct for safety is necessary as synonymous with the instinct of self-preservation. The justification of it can be the fact, that it’s not possible to stop the development of scientific progress, it will keep providing regular danger, because it’s unreal for the modern society to keep away from the benefits of civilization.

At present, the security has become a constantly increasing social significance. The confirmation of the significance is the initiation of the mandatory subject «Safety of vital activity» at schools and universities. The subject «Safety of vital activity» for the universities is particularly important, since an alumnus of university becomes entitled to hold senior posts and responsibility for security of the managed enterprise and the team of employees. The chief has a moral, administrative responsibility and even criminal liability in the event of employee injury.

Human instincts, in contrast to animal instincts, in which they are realized in full and unchanged form recorded in the genome, are controlled by it and subject to its conscious activity, formed in the process of its socialization. On this basis, individual authors replace the instinct of self-preservation in man with the concept of homeostatic regulation, also formed in the process of evolution. Homeostasis and homeostatic regulation in terms of its functional content is the instinct of the constancy of the internal environment of the organism, as well as all the instincts formed in the process of evolution. An illustrative example in the resolution of these contradictions is the description of the behavior of people in the wreck of such ships as the Titanic and Lusitania. The chances of survival were about 30%; on both ships there were not enough lifeboats. The difference was in the sinking speed. The speed of the sinking of ships affected the behavior of people: on board the rapidly sinking «Lusitania», everyone was for himself, so the most viable had more chances to escape. It should be noted that in both cases there was a pronounced stress. Slow sinking «Titanic» allowed people to follow the accepted social norms – to save in the first place children and women. At the same time, everyone realized that he was doing this to the detriment of himself, that is, ignored his own instinct of self-preservation. This analysis illustrates, that it takes time, there should be a certain place, favorable conditions and the personality in demonstration of the instinct of self-preservation by human, but it does not mean that the instinct is absent at the genome.

Садиков Г. Н. Цели и задачи безопасности жизнедеятельности – формирование мировоззрения безопасности // Гуманітарний часопис. Харків, 2013, № 2.

Садиков Г.Н. Иерархия потребностей А. Маслоу не соответствует биологической природе человека // Гуманітарний часопис. Харків, 2015, № 2.