Intuition

A phrenological mapping[1] of the brain

phrenology was among the first attempts
to correlate mental functions with specific parts of the brain
Intuition, a phenomenon of the mind, describes the ability to acquire knowledge
without inference or the use of reason.[2] The word intuition comes from Latin v
erb intueri translated as consider or from late middle English word intuit to co
ntemplate.[3] Intuition is often interpreted with varied meaning from intuition
being glimpses of greater knowledge[4] to only a function of mind; however, proc
esses by which and why they happen typically remain mostly unknown to the thinke
r, as opposed to the view of rational thinking.
Intuition has been subject of discussion from ancient philosophy to modern psych
ology, also a topic of interest in various religions and esoteric domains, as we
ll as a common subject of writings.[5] and is often misunderstood and misinterpr
eted as instinct, truth, belief, meaning and other subjects. The right brain is
popularly associated with intuitive processes such as aesthetic or generally cre
ative abilities.[6][7][8] Some scientists have contended that intuition is assoc
iated with innovation in scientific discovery.[9]
Intuition Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is
named in appreciation of the role of scientific intuition for the advancement o
f human knowledge.
Intuition in Philosophy
Philosophy of the mind is one of the main branches in philosophy which deals wit
h the concept of intuition, Intuition has been dealt with both Eastern & Western
philosophers in great details, understanding and definitions have been varying
in nature and often confusingly mistreated with words like truth, belief, meanin
g and others with intuition.[11]
Intuition in Eastern Philosophy
In the East Intuition is mostly intertwined with religion and spirituality, and
various meanings exist from different religious texts.[12]
Hinduism
In Hinduism various philosophers have tried to decipher the Vedic and other esot
eric texts & have brought about various interpretation.
Sri Aurobindo finds humans are evolutionary beings who currently are not fully d
eveloped and are only in transitional period, Intuition currently in human being
s are just outer rims and only glimpses of wider & higher self-knowing knowledge
beyond human intelligence, a knowledge where there is no division between the k
nowledge and the know er and where understanding of reality is in its entirety,
currently he finds the mind often twists and always diminishes the quality of kn
owledge from intuition. He finds that with time intuition will be the main funct
ion of human mind, thought and thinking would become a secondary activity of the
mind. He also goes on to suggest the possible ways that one can try to achieve
this state.[4]
Osho finds consciousness of human beings to be in increasing order from basic an
imal instincts to intelligence and intuition, and humans being constantly living
in that conscious state often moving between these states depending on their af
finity and he also suggests living in the state of intuition is one of the ultim
ate aim of humanity.[13]
Advaitha vedanta (a school of thought) finds intuition is a kind of experience t

hrough which one can come in contact with and experience Brahman. [14]
Buddhism
Buddhism finds intuition being a faculty in the mind of immediate knowledge & pu
ts the term intuition beyond mental process of conscious thinking, as the consci
ous intellect cannot necessarily access subconscious information, or render such
information into a communicable form.[15] In Zen Buddhism various techniques ha
ve been developed to help develop ones intuitive capability, such as k-an - the r
esolving of which leads to states of minor enlightenment (satori). In parts of Z
en Buddhism intuitive is deemed a mental state betwixt Universal mind and indivi
dual discriminating mind.[16][17]
Islam
In Islam there are various scholars with varied interpretation of intuition (oft
en termed as hads, hitting correctly on a mark), sometimes relating the ability
of having intuitive knowledge to prophet hood. Sihb al Din-al suhrawadi in his bo
ok philosophy of illumination (ishrq) finds intuition is a knowledge got through
illumination and is of mystical in nature and also suggests mystical contemplati
on(mushhada) on this to bring about correct judgements.[18] while Ibn Sina finds
the ability of having intuition as a "prophetic capacity" terms it as a knowledg
e obtained without intentionally acquiring it. He finds regular knowledge is bas
ed on imitation while intuitive knowledge as based on intellectual certitude.[19
]
Intuition in Western Philosophy
Papirus Oxyrhynchus, with fragment of Plato's Republic
In the West, intuition does not appear as a separate field of study, and early m
ention and definition can be traced back to Plato, in his book Republic he tries
to define intuition as a fundamental capacity of human reason to comprehend the
true nature of reality.[20] In his discussion with Meno & Phaedo describes it a
s a Pre-existing knowledge residing in soul of eternity, and a phenomenon by whi
ch one becomes conscious of pre-existing knowledge and he provides an example of
mathematical truths to describe that they are not arrived at by reasoning but a
knowledge already present or in a dormant form and accessible to our intuitive
capacity, This concept by Plato is also sometimes referred to as anamnesis. The
study was later continued by his followers.[21]
In his book Meditations on first philosophy, Descartes refers to an intuition as
a preexisting knowledge gained through rational reasoning or discovering truth
of a thing through thinking about it, this definition is commonly referred to as
rational intuition.[22] While later philosophers, such as Hume, whose interpret
ation of Intuition has been termed as ambiguous as he claims intuition to be a r
ecognition of relations (relation of time and place and causation) while he stat
es that "the resemblance" (recognition of relations) "will strike the eye" (whic
h would not require further examination but goes on to state) "or rather in mind
" attributing intuition to power of mind which goes against the theory of empiri
cism.[23][24]
Immanuel Kant finds intuition is thought of as basic sensory information provide
d by the cognitive faculty of sensibility (equivalent to what might loosely be c
alled perception). Kant held that our mind casts all of our external intuitions
in the form of space, and all of our internal intuitions (memory, thought) in th
e form of time.,[25] Intuitionism is a position advanced by Luitzen Egbertus Jan
Brouwer in philosophy of mathematics derived from Kant's claim that all mathema
tical knowledge is knowledge of the pure forms of the intuition - that is, intui
tion that is not empirical. Intuitionistic logic was devised by Arend Heyting to
accommodate this position (and has been adopted by other forms of constructivis
m in general). It is characterized by rejecting the law of excluded middle: as a
consequence it does not in general accept rules such as double negation elimina
tion and the use of reductio ad absurdum to prove the existence of something.

Intuitions are customarily appealed to independently of any particular theory of

how intuitions provide evidence for claims, and there are divergent accounts of
what sort of mental state intuitions are, ranging from mere spontaneous judgmen
t to a special presentation of a necessary truth.[26] However, in recent years a
number of philosophers, especially George Bealer have tried to defend appeals t
o intuition against Quinean doubts about conceptual analysis.[27] A different ch
allenge to appeals to intuition has recently come from experimental philosophers
, who argue that appeals to intuition must be informed by the methods of social
science.
The metaphilosophical assumption that philosophy depends on intuitions has recen
tly been challenged by some philosophers. Timothy Williamson has argued that int
uition plays no special role in philosophy practice, and that skepticism about i
ntuition cannot be meaningfully separated from a general skepticism about judgme
nt. On this view, there are no qualitative differences between the methods of ph
ilosophy and common sense, the sciences or mathematics.[28]
Intuition in psychology
Girl with a Book by Jos Ferraz de Almeida Jnior
Sigmund Freud said knowledge could only be attained through intellectual manipul
ation of careful observations and rejects any other means of acquiring knowledge
such as intuition, and his findings could have been analytic turn of his mind t
owards the subject.[29] In Carl Jung's theory of the ego, described in 1916 in P
sychological Types, intuition was an "abstract function", opposed most directly
by sensation, and can be found in combination with either of the "judging functi
ons" of thinking and feeling, as in intuitive thinking types and intuitive feeli
ng types.[30] Jung defined intuition as "perception via the unconscious": using
sense-perception only as a starting point, to bring forth ideas, images, possibi
lities,patterns, ways out of a blocked situation, by a process that is mostly un
conscious.
Jung said that a person in whom intuition was dominant, an "intuitive type", do
not use the concrete sensory experience but on abstract intuitive one. An extrov
erted intuitive type, "the natural champion of all minorities with a future", or
ients to new and promising but unproven possibilities, often leaving to chase af
ter a new possibility before old ventures have borne fruit, oblivious to his or
her own welfare in the constant pursuit of change. An introverted intuitive type
orients by images from the unconscious, ever exploring the psychic world of the
archetypes, seeking to perceive the meaning of events, but often having no inte
rest in playing a role in those events and not seeing any connection between the
contents of the psychic world and him or herself. Jung thought that extroverted
intuitive types were likely entrepreneurs, speculators, cultural revolutionarie
s, often undone by a desire to escape every situation before it becomes settled
and constraining repeatedly leaving lovers for the sake of new romantic possibil
ities. His introverted intuitive types were likely mystics, prophets, or cranks,
struggling with a tension between protecting their visions from influence by ot
hers and making their ideas comprehensible and reasonably persuasive to others a n
ecessity for those visions to bear real fruit.[31]
In more-recent psychology, intuition can encompass the ability to know valid sol
utions to problems and decision making. For example, the recognition primed deci
sion (RPD) model explains how people can make relatively fast decisions without
having to compare options. Gary Klein found that under time pressure, high stake
s, and changing parameters, experts used their base of experience to identify si
milar situations and intuitively choose feasible solutions. Thus, model is a ble
nd of intuition and analysis. The intuition is the pattern-matching process that
quickly suggests feasible courses of action. The analysis is the mental simulat
ion, a conscious and deliberate review of the courses of action.[32]

According to the renowned neuropsychologist and neurobiologist Roger Wolcott Spe

rry though, intuition is a right-brain activity while factual and mathematical a
nalysis is a left-brain activity.[33]
A lot of time instinct is misinterpreted as intuition and its reliability consid
ered to be dependent on past knowledge and occurrences in a specific area. For e
xample, someone who has had more experiences with children will tend to have a b
etter instinct about what they should do in certain situations with them. This i
s not to say that one with a great amount of experience is always going to have
an accurate intuition.[34]
Intuitive abilities were quantitatively tested at Yale University in the 1970s.
While studying nonverbal communication, researchers noted that some subjects wer
e able to read nonverbal facial cues before reinforcement occurred.[35] In emplo
ying a similar design, they noted that highly intuitive subjects made decisions
quickly but could not identify their rationale. Their level of accuracy, however
, did not differ from that of non intuitive subjects.[36]
Colloquial usage
Intuition, as a gut feeling based on experience, has been found to be useful for
business leaders for making judgement about people, culture and strategy.[37] L
aw enforcement officers often claim to observe suspects and immediately "know" t
hat they possess a weapon or illicit narcotic substances, which could also be ac
tion of instincts. Often unable to articulate why they reacted or what prompted
them at the time of the event, they sometimes retrospectively can plot their act
ions based upon what had been clear and present danger signals. Such examples li
ken intuition to "gut feelings" and when viable illustrate preconscious activity
.[38]