prerational
Prior to reasoning
Prerational describes mental states, behaviors, or developmental stages that exist before rational thought emerges or takes hold.
The term appears in developmental psychology for early childhood cognition, and in philosophy for instinctive or intuitive responses that precede logical analysis: prerational fears, prerational attachment.
Unlike irrational, which suggests a failure of reason, prerational simply indicates reason hasn't yet entered the picture.
Instinctive immediate understanding
- hunchUnproven inner sense
- gut feelingInstinctive sense about something
- sixth senseExtrasensory perception ability
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
premonition · foreknowledge · presentiment · inkling · instinct · sensing · feeling · knowing
Digestive tract, or instinct
- impulseSudden urge to act
- reflexInvoluntary stimulus response
- visceralArising from deep instinct
- innateExisting since birth
inborn · instinctual · automatic · hardwired · unthinking · biological · genetic · hereditary
Of a clan
- shamanismMediation between worlds
- animismSpirits inhabit all things
- totemismBelief linking clans to symbols
- mythologyBody of traditional tales
ritual · sacred · archetypal · symbolic · dreamtime · legend · folklore · superstition
Not fully developed
- nascentBeginning to develop
- embryonicAt earliest developmental stage
- inchoatePartially formed, undeveloped
- rudimentaryIn simplest possible form
unformed · fledgling · infantile · juvenile · childlike · preoperational · egocentric · magical thinking
Unverified belief accepted as true
- presuppositionImplicit prior assumption
- taken-for-grantedPresumed without acknowledgment
- unexaminedNot yet scrutinized
- unquestionedAccepted without challenge
preconscious · implicit · tacit · background · habitual · conditioned · cultural · inherited
intuition
Instinctive immediate understanding
- hunchUnproven inner sense
- gut feelingInstinctive sense about something
- sixth senseExtrasensory perception ability
insight · premonition · foreknowledge · presentiment · inkling · instinct · sensing · feeling · knowing · apprehension
gut
Digestive tract, or instinct
innate · inborn · instinctual · automatic · hardwired · unthinking · biological · genetic · hereditary · elemental
tribal
Of a clan
- shamanismMediation between worlds
- animismSpirits inhabit all things
- totemismBelief linking clans to symbols
mythology · ritual · sacred · archetypal · symbolic · dreamtime · legend · folklore · superstition · taboo
immature
Not fully developed
- nascentBeginning to develop
- embryonicAt earliest developmental stage
- inchoatePartially formed, undeveloped
rudimentary · unformed · fledgling · infantile · juvenile · childlike · preoperational · egocentric · magical thinking · animistic
assumption
Unverified belief accepted as true
- presuppositionImplicit prior assumption
- taken-for-grantedPresumed without acknowledgment
- unexaminedNot yet scrutinized
unquestioned · preconscious · implicit · tacit · background · habitual · conditioned · cultural · inherited · traditional
prerationalrational
Governed by logic
reasoned · logical · analytical · systematic · evidence-based
rational, irrational, rationale, rationality, rationalize, rationalism, irrationally, irrationality, rationalist