William James’s 1890 classic 'The Principles of Psychology' portrayed instincts as inherited tendencies, natural, biologically grounded impulses such as fear, sociability, curiosity, acquisitiveness, and play that guide human behaviour long before deliberation or reasoning has time to intervene. James argued that these instincts, though primitive in origin, are not fixed destinies: because humans also inherit extraordinary capacities for learning, reflection, and habit-formation, our instincts provide an initial motivational direction that can be shaped, ennobled, or redirected through culture, education, and conscious effort. This insight remains deeply valuable today: on a personal level, it reminds us that many emotional reactions are not personal failures but ancestral legacies we can understand and reshape; and at the level of society, it supports the creation of institutions, such as schools, communities, and workplaces, that channel our innate impulses (for cooperation, curiosity, achievement, and even competition) toward collective wellbeing rather than conflict. James’s work thus offers a hopeful view of human nature: we are born with tendencies, not destinies, and by understanding our instinctual inheritance we can build healthier lives and healthier societies. As a Christian psychologist, William James understood the dangers of relying on one's own understanding or instinct, which can be flawed. As Proverbs 16:25 states: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death".