Definition
A quick understanding that appears without detailed conscious reasoning, often based on experience, but always falsifiable.
Intuition is an impression or understanding that appears quickly, without detailed conscious reasoning. It can be based on accumulated experience and implicit perceived clues. It can also reproduce biases, fears or habits; it therefore gains in being confronted with facts and reasoning.
To be retained
- Listen to the initial impression
- Search for the clues that support it
- Check facts available
- Distinguish intuition, fear and desire
Origin of the term and context
The word comes from the Latin intuitio, "look, contemplation." In psychology, intuition is often understood as a fast and implicit treatment of information.
Why does it matter?
Intuition can be valuable in a controlled field, when the brain recognizes familiar patterns. It becomes less reliable in new or biased situations.
- Allow rapid decisions in a controlled area
- Mobilizing an implicit experience
- Remaining vulnerable to cognitive biases
- Gain reliability when checked
How can I practice it?
- Note intuition before acting
- Search for concrete clues
- Distinguish intuition and fear
- Check important decisions
Misconceptions and points of caution
- A strong intuition can be false.
- Intuition is not necessarily supernatural.
- It does not replace the facts.
Perspectives from different traditions
- Mystics: direct or internal knowledge.
- Cognitive psychology: fast and implicit processes.
- Philosophy: intuition as immediate seizure.
To go further
- System 1 / System 2 — Daniel Kahneman
- Sources of Power — Gary Klein