(Owing to a lot of soliloquys in the past week which have annoyed the Warden, Prisoner No. 12 is not allowed to go out for yard-time. The natural response, nowadays, for Officer to such happenings is to go keep him company – selfish and selfless all at the same time)

Officer: My friend, there are many instincts. (No. 12 nods). A number of days ago, I was watching this program on TV where one of the guys went into this long monologue on willingness and unwillingness. Would you not say these are just opposing instincts?

Prisoner No. 12: You know, I have been thinking about something along those lines. It depends on how you look at it – it’s a matter of perspective all round – how you define instinct, narrowly or broadly, and what qualifies as instinct and then what that relation or phrase “opposing instincts” means.

Hmmm…anyway, here is something I thought of before:

Is philosophy a collection of instincts?

Then the further questions come in: Is it the collection of instincts? Or is it the collection of the instincts?