by Marinus Jan Marijs
Definition:
a: The power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference
b : Immediate apprehension or cognition
Intuition is direct knowing without a rational or sensory process.
Intuition is a nonlinear mode of functioning, and is a way of experiencing everything at once, and not splitting it up into linear chains of cause and effect.
If intuition is identical to clear-knowing, than it is extrasensory perception. Intuition is fundamental in the development of philosophy, mathematics and science.
If it is a paranormal ability, than surely its one with a far reaching influence upon human culture and society.
Kurt Gödel who is generally seen as the greatest logician who ever lived, described mathematical insight as extrasensory perception of a platonic realm.
“Intuitions as a source of discovery, such as Kekulé’s vision of a snake biting its tail, inspiring his hitting upon the cyclic structure of the benzene molecule. Or Poincaré his intuition, making his great breakthrough in the theory of the theta functions as he stepped into a Paris bus, illumined suddenly, as if by lightning”.
Translogical insight or intuition can be differentiated from other thought patterns in that it is a direct knowing and not an analytical process. Furthermore there is a feeling of being right, correct, this by introspection. The perception of qualitative differences between different kinds of phenomenological perceptions within one’s own consciousness.
This perceived difference in quality gives this feeling of being right has the following criteria:
The exclusiveness, nothing else pushes forward
The stubbornness by which the information pressures itself
The directness by which the information manifests itself
The clearness
The liveliness
The coherency, the consistency it has with other conceptions
The recognition of the reproduced as such
The feeling of evidence. (William James his Noetic Quality)
Intuition is totally different from subliminal patterns such as instincts and conditioned reflexes:
Instincts Reasoning Intuition
Pre-logical Logical Trans-logical
Fast Slow Non-temporal
Unconscious process Conscious process Process-less
Automatic Controlled Direct
Slow learning Flexible Immediate
Conditioned Free will Choiceless
Automatic Effortful Effortless
Parallel processing Serial processing Focal point
Conditioned processes Rule governed Resonance
Fixed patterns Systemic Flow
Algorithmic Partly algorithmic Non-algorithmic (according
to Gödel and Roger Penrose):
Computational Partly computational Non-computational
See for example the claim of Roger Penrose in the section entitled “The non-algorithmic nature of mathematical insight” in The Emperor’s New Mind [Chapter 10].
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a loyal servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Albert Einstein
Kurt Gödel: “The human mind infinitely surpasses any finite machine.”
See further: Jacques Hadamard, The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field – 1954
About how scientists and mathematicians reach their findings:
Quote: “It was quite clear that for them the best indications of understanding is the ability to sense that something is true in an immediate manner without having recourse to a form or proof, having a result without knowing how it was obtained is perhaps a most striking phenomenon in the work of a mathematician.”
Different types of intuition by Marinus Jan Marijs
Intuition, in philosophy, the power of obtaining knowledge that cannot be acquired either by inference or observation, by reason or experience. As such, intuition is thought of as an original, independent source of knowledge, since it is designed to account for just those kinds of knowledge that other sources do not provide. Knowledge of necessary truths and of moral principles is sometimes explained in this way. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
The Difference Between Instinct and Intuition
While the words instinct and intuition are often used interchangeably, these concepts are totally different.
Intuition is a form of direct knowing, which should not be confused with instincts, which are algorithms, stored programs.
So intuition is not only different from instinct, it is almost the opposite of it.
Instinct Intuition
Physiological Psychological
Mechanical Creative
Derivative Original
Algorithmic Non-algorithmic
Unperceptive Insight
Process Direct
Pre-logical Translogical
Automatic Voluntary
Routine Innovative
Repetitive Heterogeneous
Different types of intuition:
An intuitive feeling for the logical structure of any new mathematical theory;
An intuitive feeling for the combinatorial superstructure of new theories
Axioms within logic,
Axiom, in logic, an indemonstrable first principle, rule, or maxim, that has found general acceptance or is thought worthy of common acceptance whether by virtue of a claim to intrinsic merit or on the basis of an appeal to self-evidence. An example would be: “Nothing can both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Axioms are ordinarily truisms; consequently, self-evidence may be taken as a mark of intuition. To “see” that one statement follows from another, that a particular inference is valid, enables one to make an “intuitive induction” of the validity of all inferences of that kind. Other nonformal necessary truths (e.g., “nothing can be both red and green all over”) are also explained as intuitive inductions: one can see a universal and necessary connection through a particular instance of it. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
which holds logical principles to be the outcome of intuition, bases its case on the self-evident and unarguable character of the assertions with which it is concerned. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Social intuition, the right way in terms of how to relate to others within a social situation.
Moral intuitions
moral assertions record knowledge of a special kind. The rightness of actions is discovered by a special moral faculty, seen as analogous to the power of observation or the power of intuiting logical principles.
(Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Kinaesthetic flow
Non-sequitur thinking (humour)
Creativity, the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality.
Artistic painting, the works of art painted in a particular harmonic configuration.
Musical intuition, the ability to create thematically complex melodies, musical compositions in which different elements form a harmonic structure with clarity, balance and transparency.
Translogical insight in the symbolic/allegorical meaning of stories.
Creating new imaginative poetic expressions.
Composing prose, the capacity to structure a complex narrative landscape.
Inspired lyrical song-writing that transcends artistic conventions.
To create a paradigm shift in one’s worldview.
Numiniousness, a deeply felt intuition of the rightness of a particular situation.
Insight in the ultimate nature of reality.
Intuitive wisdom, the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment, and virtues such as ethical behaviour and benevolence.
Translogical insight into technological innovation.
The ability to find totally new and meaningful patterns in complex data.
The ability to find new significant correspondences.
The capacity to access valuable information from the platonic realm.
The ability to see cross connections between multiple different domains.
The ability to generate original ideas and solutions, to be highly creative;
offering unusual, unique answers; originality, independent thinking.
The ability to integrate multiple perspectives, to perceive essential
elements and underlying structures and patterns in relationships and ideas.
