Defining Intuition

Does intuition offer legitimate knowledge about reality?  Is it reliable?  Over the next few days (or weeks) I will contemplate the nature of intuition with the goal of answering these questions--but to understand intuition I first need to know exactly what I mean when I use the word.  Precise definitions and consistent use of them must precede investigation in this case (and many others).  Because I have encountered several different intended meanings when people use the word "intuition", I have listed the primary options and briefly explained each below.

Intuition can refer to:


1. A "gut feeling" acquired and/or honed by experience.

People might call someone's survival instinct or hunch at work intuition according to this definition.  For instance, a police officer could call a correct suspicion that her fellow cop was corrupt an "intuition" by this meaning.  At this level, this meaning of intuition just a glorified judgment of probability based on remembered past experience--nothing more than trained expectations.

2. Innate knowledge of something.

According to this definition, someone who subscribes to a particular view of moral epistemology would say that a person who experiences guilt or moral outrage about certain actions is acting upon innate knowledge that he or she is born with.  The looming issue with this position, of course, is that one person will dismiss what another person calls innate knowledge, leading to contradictory claims and actions based on nothing more than subjective perceptions taken for innate knowledge.

3. Understanding something without any prior reasoning.

People, for instance, do not often have to consciously reason out why they find certain people attractive, and while they may be able to identify reason why this is the case, some reactions like this simply happen because they do, with no conscious reasoning whatsoever.  These perceptions are not conclusions reached by logic; they are simply recognized as they occur.  By this definition I could call my recognition of the color I call red a type of intuition, as I do not have to mentally recite a syllogism each time I see a red object to know that I am seeing something I consider red.  I know with absolute certainty that when I see something I call red I am seeing something I call red and this requires no effort.  Whether or not the object itself is actually red constitutes a separate matter.  Here I speak of how I have awareness of my perception, not how I can know if something I view as red truly is that color.


The definitions we ascribe to words inevitably affect our communication of ideas and how we dwell on concepts after others bring them to our attention.  The utter arbitrary relativity of language does not mean communication is impossible, only that it is not perfect.  With the contending definitions of intuition somewhat addressed, I will consider the nature of intuition, its reliability, and its usefulness in decision making in the near future.  Hopefully I will have more to post about regarding intuition soon!