Intuition: Encyclopedia II - Intuition - Intuition as form of knowledge

Intuition - Intuition as form of knowledge

Intuition is an unconscious form of knowledge. It is immediate and often not open to rational/analytical thought processes. Rationalisation of an intuition and the development of a chain of logic to demonstrate more structurally why it is valid may follow later.

Intuition differs from an opinion since the latter is based on experience, while an intuition is held to be affected by previous experiences only unconsciously. Intuition is also said to differ from instinct, which does not have the experience element at all. A person who has an intuitive opinion cannot immediately fully explain why he or she holds that view. Intuition is not limited to opinions but can encompass the ability to know valid solutions to problems.

Intuition has advantages in solving complex problems and finding new results.

Intuition is one source of common sense. It can also help in induction to gain empirical knowledge. Sources of intuition are feeling, experiences and knowledge.

An important intuitive method is brainstorming.

Intuition does not mean to find a solution immediately, though it does mean the solution comes unexplicably. Sometimes it helps to sleep one night. There is an old Russian maxim: "The morning is wiser than the evening" ("Утро вечера мудреннее").

Intuition plays a key role in Romanticism, and it is the highest form of skill acquisition in the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Intuition as form of knowledge", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki