ⓘ Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different writers give the word intuition a great variety of different me ..


ⓘ Intuition


The word intuition comes from the Latin verb intueri translated as "consider" or from the late middle English word intuit, "to contemplate".


1. Philosophy


Eastern philosophy



1.1. Philosophy Hinduism


For Sri Aurobindo intuition comes under the realms of knowledge by identity; he describes the psychological plane in humans often referred to as mana in sanskrit having two arbitrary natures, the first being imprinting of psychological experiences which is constructed through sensory information mind seeking to become aware of external world. The second nature being the action when it seeks to be aware of itself, resulting in humans being aware of their existence or aware of being angry & aware of other emotions. He terms this second nature as knowledge by identity. He finds that at present as the result of evolution the mind has accustomed itself to depend upon certain physiological functioning and their reactions as its normal means of entering into relations with the outer material world. As a result, when we seek to know about the external world the dominant habit is through arriving at truths about things via what our senses convey to us. However, knowledge by identity, which we currently only give the awareness of human beings existence, can be extended further to outside of ourselves resulting in intuitive knowledge.

He finds this intuitive knowledge was common to older humans Vedic and later was taken over by reason which currently organises our perception, thoughts and actions resulting from Vedic to metaphysical philosophy and later to experimental science. He finds that this process, which seems to be decent, is actually a circle of progress, as a lower faculty is being pushed to take up as much from a higher way of working. He finds when self-awareness in the mind is applied to ones self and the outer other -self, results in luminous self-manifesting identity; the reason also converts itself into the form of the self-luminous intuitional knowledge.

Osho believed consciousness of human beings to be in increasing order from basic animal instincts to intelligence and intuition, and humans being constantly living in that conscious state often moving between these states depending on their affinity. He also suggests living in the state of intuition is one of the ultimate aims of humanity.

Advaita vedanta a school of thought takes intuition to be an experience through which one can come in contact with an experience Brahman.


1.2. Philosophy Buddhism

Buddhism finds intuition to be a faculty in the mind of immediate knowledge and puts the term intuition beyond the mental process of conscious thinking, as the conscious thought cannot necessarily access subconscious information, or render such information into a communicable form. In Zen Buddhism various techniques have been developed to help develop ones intuitive capability, such as koans – the resolving of which leads to states of minor enlightenment satori. In parts of Zen Buddhism intuition is deemed a mental state between the Universal mind and ones individual, discriminating mind.


1.3. Philosophy Islam

In Islam there are various scholars with varied interpretations of intuition often termed as hadas Arabic: حدس, hitting correctly on a mark), sometimes relating the ability of having intuitive knowledge to prophethood. Sihab al Din-al Suhrawadi, in his book Philosophy Of Illumination ishraq, finds that intuition is knowledge acquired through illumination, is mystical in nature, and also suggests mystical contemplation mushahada to bring about correct judgment. Ibn Sīnā finds the ability of having intuition as a "prophetic capacity" and describes it as knowledge obtained without intentionally acquiring it. He finds that regular knowledge is based on imitation while intuitive knowledge is based on intellectual certitude.


1.4. Philosophy Western philosophy

In the West, intuition does not appear as a separate field of study, and early mentions and definitions 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. In his works Meno and Phaedo, he describes intuition as a pre-existing knowledge residing in the "soul of eternity", and a phenomenon by which one becomes conscious of pre-existing knowledge. He provides an example of mathematical truths, and posits that they are not arrived at by reason. He argues that these truths are accessed using a knowledge already present 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.

In his book Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes refers to an" intuition” as a pre-existing knowledge gained through rational reasoning or discovering truth through contemplation. This definition is commonly referred to as rational intuition. Later philosophers, such as Hume, have more ambiguous interpretations of intuition. Hume claims intuition is a recognition of relationships while he states that "the resemblance" recognition of relations "will strike the eye" which would not require further examination but goes on to state, "or rather in mind" - attributing intuition to power of mind, contradicting the theory of empiricism.

Immanuel Kant’s notion of" intuition” differs considerably from the Cartesian notion, and consists of the basic sensory information provided by the cognitive faculty of sensibility equivalent to what might loosely be called 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 the form of time. Intuitionism is a position advanced by Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer in philosophy of mathematics derived from Kants claim that all mathematical knowledge is knowledge of the pure forms of the intuition - that is, intuition that is not empirical. Intuitionistic logic was devised by Arend Heyting to accommodate this position and has been adopted by other forms of constructivism 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 elimination 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 judgment to a special presentation of a necessary truth. In recent years a number of philosophers, especially George Bealer have tried to defend appeals to intuition against Quinean doubts about conceptual analysis. A different challenge 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.



2.1. Psychology Freud

According to Sigmund Freud, knowledge could only be attained through the intellectual manipulation of carefully made observations and rejected any other means of acquiring knowledge such as intuition, and his findings could have been an analytic turn of his mind towards the subject.


2.2. Psychology Jung




2.3. Psychology Modern psychology



Intuitive abilities were quantitatively tested at Yale University in the 1970s. While studying nonverbal communication, researchers noted that some subjects were able to read nonverbal facial cues before reinforcement occurred. In employing 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.

According to the works of Daniel Kahneman, intuition is the ability to automatically generate solutions without long logical arguments or evidence.


3. 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. Law enforcement officers often claim to observe suspects and immediately "know" that they possess a weapon or illicit narcotic substances, which could also be action 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 actions based upon what had been clear and present danger signals. Such examples liken intuition to "gut feelings" and when viable illustrate preconscious activity.

Free and no ads
no need to download or install


online intellectual game →