We explain what intuition is, how you get to it and its characteristics. Also, how to differentiate it from what is not intuition
What is intuition?
When we talk about intuition or, popularly, “a hunch,” we generally refer to the ability to immediately perceive or know some aspect of the reality that surrounds us, without reasoning or deductive capacity intervening.
That is to say, that intuited things are those that are known through non-rational paths and often non-conscious, which cannot be explained or even verbalized. For this reason, they have been popularly considered the result of thinking “with the heart” or instead of with the head, since in the traditional imagination the head is associated with ideas, and the heart with feelings or with the world of reality. subjectivity.
However, the term intuition, coming from Latin intuition“looking within,” appears in various philosophical and psychological jargons, often as an equivalent of evident knowledge. It was an object of study by the philosophers of rationalism, empiricism and criticism, in the Modern Age, although It is currently studied by psychology and neurology. In popular language it is usually used as a synonym for premonition.
See also: Intuitive knowledge
Characteristics of intuition
Intuition is characterized, broadly speaking, by:
- It is a form of immediate knowledge direct, in whose acquisition no reasoning, no deduction, and no conscious act is involved.
- It can be understood as a form of non-critical consciousness that is, unconscious perception of the environment.
- The intuition manifests itself in an unexpected way and offers real, factual knowledge of reality.
- There are different possible explanations for its existence but it is generally accepted as a form of unconscious knowledge that comes from analyzing the environment or previous patterns of experience, without ever becoming an intentional thought.
What is intuition not?
Although they are sometimes taken as synonyms, intuition is not the same as premonition, magic or some kind of telepathy things that are more on the side of fiction than on the side of reality. On the contrary, intuition is a quite real thought process.
We can talk about intuition when we have acquired some knowledge unconsciously, as if sectors of our mind operated without our consent and suddenly came to us with a solution. But We cannot speak of intuition as a superpower, nor of a kind of mental magic.
A good example of what intuition is is provided by computer science, an area in which computer models that are easy to understand are called “intuitive”, that is, they are guided by something similar to “common sense”. This means that a person, without having to study it or without great and long explanations, is able to understand for himself how said system should operate.
Continue with: Creative thinking
References
- “Intuition” on Wikipedia.
- “Intuition” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Intuition” in Filosofía.org.
- “Intuition” in Psychology Today.
- “Intuition” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- “Intuition” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
