The method of thinking proposed by René Descartes is instructive. He proposed intuition and reason (deduction) as the way to wisdom. “Concerning the objects presented to us we should investigate, not what others have thought nor what we ourselves conjecture, but what we can intuit clearly and evidently or deduce with certainty, since knowledge is acquired by no other means.” This concept of intuition implies perfect clarity, although Descartes realized that his ideal was too high for daily life: “The need to get things done does not always permit us the leisure for such a careful inquiry . . . .” Nevertheless, his passion for clarity inspires efforts toward a higher quality of thinking. He recommended a rule that resonates with Buddhist practice: “We ought to turn the whole force of our minds to the smallest and simplest things, and to stop there for a long time, until we become accustomed to intuiting the truth clearly and distinctly.” He lamented the popular disregard for careful intuiting of simple objects, and he taught how to strengthen the mind by exercising it on the most obvious and well-established things. At its height, insight is a gift. “Intuitive knowledge is an illumination of the soul, whereby it beholds in the light of God those things which it pleases him to reveal to us by a direct impression of divine clearness in our understanding which in this is not considered an agent, but only as receiving the rays of divinity.”
Wisdom is a quality of thinking that integrates the full spectrum of our powers of mind. In a universe of many dimensions, we can cope thanks to our powers of intuition in the realms of material fact, intellectual meaning, and spiritual value. Sharpened by experience and reason, rooted in depth of thought, intuition achieves unshakable insight. Thanks to intuition we can come to know the facts of things and what causes events to happen; we can come to know intuitively what is right; and we can also develop an intuitive awareness sense of spiritual reality. In these areas of reality, intuition enables us to cope: we can function, explore, and think for ourselves.
These powers of intuition are basic in the sense that there is nothing more basic we can appeal to in order to prove their validity. Logically speaking, they are assumptions. Perception assumes that our material surroundings exist; caring about the difference between right and wrong assumes that morality is a valid concern; prayer assumes that God is real. As our experience gains in its length, breadth, and depth, intuitive insights form a web. Around the world, people shape these intuitions in culturally different ways; but the capacities are universal. Skeptics can deny but never disprove them.
Could you share an experience of achieving insightful intuition? What factors were involved that led up to that insight? Living at your best, are there stretches of time when you are intuitively insightful without having to experiment, reflect, or go through some process or other? Are there stretches of time when your very process of working toward intuition-insight becomes graced (some speak of flow or being in the zone)?
René Descartes, Rules for the Direction of the Mind, #3, in Roger Ariew, ed., René Descartes: Philosophical Essays and Correspondence (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000), p. 5, substituting “knowledge” for “scientific knowledge” (scientia); Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditation Six, last sentence; Rules for the Direction of the Mind, #9, p. 20; and Descartes quoted by Nel Noddings and Paul Shore, Awakening the Inner Eye: Intuition in Education (New York and London: Teachers College Press, 1984), 13. Photo: http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/images/descartes.jpg
On account of my educational experience I cannot encounter discussions of intuition without remembering J.S. Mill’s “Examination of Sir William Hamilton…” and as I have never found an argument that surpasses Mill’s refutation of what he calls “intuitionism” I find it difficult to reply in the form of your question. On the other hand I rely on the ratiocination required on Mill’s scientific method that feels like what people term, “intuition”. With is on mind, then, I reply to your interesting question about insigjtful intuition.
For me, insight is always relational and usually immediate. This is just to say intuition is personal and present. Otherwise my ideas are merely fanciful.
Sitting in church recently and observing my sister/fellow worshippers with whom I shall be sharing time soon as the preacher and celebrant, I was struck with how graced I am to be able to be able to experience the presence of God with these new strangers. We shall know the same scripture and the same liturgy and to some extent the same culture but we shall be primarily strangers gathered together for s purpose. It struck me that it is a shared purpose that informs “devotion” and perhaps most other fundamental human narratives.
“Purpose” is something we make as a decision and a choice, each for our own reasons and through our own means. When these choices cohere so beautifully in a simple process such as religious worship or in the most mundane social gatherings we can “intuit” wonders. We can experience individual enlightenment or repentance or gratitude as a function of a kind of shared wisdom.
All of this can be known because the “fact of the thing” I experience is a reflection of the purpose I choose to accept. Perhaps it is in this choice that wisdom resides.
On account of my educational experience I cannot encounter discussions of intuition without remembering J.S. Mill’s “Examination of Sir William Hamilton…” and as I have never found an argument that surpasses Mill’s refutation of what he calls “intuitionism” I find it difficult to reply in the form of your question. On the other hand I rely on the ratiocination required on Mill’s scientific method that feels like what people term, “intuition”. With is on mind, then, I reply to your interesting question about insigjtful intuition.
For me, insight is always relational and usually immediate. This is just to say intuition is personal and present. Otherwise my ideas are merely fanciful.
Sitting in church recently and observing my sister/fellow worshippers with whom I shall be sharing time soon as the preacher and celebrant, I was struck with how graced I am to be able to be able to experience the presence of God with these new strangers. We shall know the same scripture and the same liturgy and to some extent the same culture but we shall be primarily strangers gathered together for s purpose. It struck me that it is a shared purpose that informs “devotion” and perhaps most other fundamental human narratives.
“Purpose” is something we make as a decision and a choice, each for our own reasons and through our own means. When these choices cohere so beautifully in a simple process such as religious worship or in the most mundane social gatherings we can “intuit” wonders. We can experience individual enlightenment or repentance or gratitude as a function of a kind of shared wisdom.
All of this can be known because the “fact of the thing” I experience is a reflection of the purpose I choose to accept. Perhaps it is in this choice that wisdom resides.
This resonates immediately and clearly. I’ve always kept feeling that there is a different channel, unrecognized most of the time, whereby we get DIRECT access to KNOWING the things. Recently, while translating a profound and complex text, I kept realizing that I PERCEIVE the meaning – after that it was only a matter of finding the right words. (Please smile after ‘only’.)
Thanks for bringing this issue, Jeff.
This resonates immediately and clearly. I’ve always kept feeling that there is a different channel, unrecognized most of the time, whereby we get DIRECT access to KNOWING the things. Recently, while translating a profound and complex text, I kept realizing that I PERCEIVE the meaning – after that it was only a matter of finding the right words. (Please smile after ‘only’.)
Thanks for bringing this issue, Jeff.
Intuition: This is the third day, that I have tried to post my comments, but for some reason, the other two attempts failed, due to errors on my part before I had an opportunity to copy them. and so the comments below are not exactly like the other two that I wrote, but this captures the spirit of what I want to say. Some refer to this intuition as their “gut feeling.”
In the world of things, meanings and values, there must be some underlying foundation that gives us a sense of validity as we operate within the parameters. As we attempt to go further and further back to the origin of things, meanings and values, we reach a point where we can go no further, where we have to make some assumptions about the validity of these parameters of reality. And I think that among these assumptions lies the concept of intuition. We assume that our experience with these realities are valid, and our experience with them tends to make them self validating, even though we can not get behind them and look at them from the pre-genesis of them. I had such an experience with my life purpose when I was about 35 years.
I had completed my medical training and was all set to go out into the world and pursue my career. Armed with the traditional purpose of work, I set out to accumulate wealth through my work. Now there is nothing wrong with accumulating wealth, but I found that for some reason, the accumulating of wealth as a primary purpose in life suddenly ran cold, as I suddenly awaken to a deep dissatisfaction within my inner self. It took me awhile to track down the source of this deep satisfaction. I felt I should be happy and satisfied but I was not. I knew that something was wrong with my life, but could not determine what it was. I was following all the rules for success, but did not feel successful.
I was working hard and felt like I was making a significant contribution to the health of the patients that I was taking care of. But for some reason, my work lacked a satisfactory meaning. I wondered if I had chosen the wrong vocation, since my primary motive for the vocation was to escape from dead end jobs, and the specter of intermittently employment, plus the vocation was an opportunity that literally dropped in my lap. But as I checked the components of my vocation aside from the incompleteness of it, I like all the components.
Finally I realized that I needed another dimension for my life and vocation. Intellectual satisfaction and material compensation were not enough. I needed something behind the meanings, the meaning of the meaning. I realized that I needed a personal relationship with the God, the creator of all these things, meanings and values. And when I sought after this personal relationship, my purpose changed. No longer was the emphasis upon compensation for the work I was doing, but the emphasis shifted to service.
I recalled a conversation I had with my mentor who encouraged me to become a physician. When in my enthusiasm for having found a profession that would allow me to make “lots of money,” He said to me, ” James, never let money be the primary reason for the service you provide. You will receive compensation, but that should not be your primary reason for providing the service.”
And I admit to you that he was right, for after my assuming a conscious personal relationship with God, my purpose changed from a selfish one to an unselfish one, the satisfying internal sense became a reality, the meanings became enjoyable, and the rewards of providing service to those in need were really satisfying. I became programmed to serve, rather than programmed to be served. And something inside of me tells me this is right. This must be intuition working.
Dr Perry
I agree that your conviction was insightful and intuitive; in this case, this example seems to be the product of spirit and soul registering in the conscious mind.
Intuition: This is the third day, that I have tried to post my comments, but for some reason, the other two attempts failed, due to errors on my part before I had an opportunity to copy them. and so the comments below are not exactly like the other two that I wrote, but this captures the spirit of what I want to say. Some refer to this intuition as their “gut feeling.”
In the world of things, meanings and values, there must be some underlying foundation that gives us a sense of validity as we operate within the parameters. As we attempt to go further and further back to the origin of things, meanings and values, we reach a point where we can go no further, where we have to make some assumptions about the validity of these parameters of reality. And I think that among these assumptions lies the concept of intuition. We assume that our experience with these realities are valid, and our experience with them tends to make them self validating, even though we can not get behind them and look at them from the pre-genesis of them. I had such an experience with my life purpose when I was about 35 years.
I had completed my medical training and was all set to go out into the world and pursue my career. Armed with the traditional purpose of work, I set out to accumulate wealth through my work. Now there is nothing wrong with accumulating wealth, but I found that for some reason, the accumulating of wealth as a primary purpose in life suddenly ran cold, as I suddenly awaken to a deep dissatisfaction within my inner self. It took me awhile to track down the source of this deep satisfaction. I felt I should be happy and satisfied but I was not. I knew that something was wrong with my life, but could not determine what it was. I was following all the rules for success, but did not feel successful.
I was working hard and felt like I was making a significant contribution to the health of the patients that I was taking care of. But for some reason, my work lacked a satisfactory meaning. I wondered if I had chosen the wrong vocation, since my primary motive for the vocation was to escape from dead end jobs, and the specter of intermittently employment, plus the vocation was an opportunity that literally dropped in my lap. But as I checked the components of my vocation aside from the incompleteness of it, I like all the components.
Finally I realized that I needed another dimension for my life and vocation. Intellectual satisfaction and material compensation were not enough. I needed something behind the meanings, the meaning of the meaning. I realized that I needed a personal relationship with the God, the creator of all these things, meanings and values. And when I sought after this personal relationship, my purpose changed. No longer was the emphasis upon compensation for the work I was doing, but the emphasis shifted to service.
I recalled a conversation I had with my mentor who encouraged me to become a physician. When in my enthusiasm for having found a profession that would allow me to make “lots of money,” He said to me, ” James, never let money be the primary reason for the service you provide. You will receive compensation, but that should not be your primary reason for providing the service.”
And I admit to you that he was right, for after my assuming a conscious personal relationship with God, my purpose changed from a selfish one to an unselfish one, the satisfying internal sense became a reality, the meanings became enjoyable, and the rewards of providing service to those in need were really satisfying. I became programmed to serve, rather than programmed to be served. And something inside of me tells me this is right. This must be intuition working.
Dr Perry
I agree that your conviction was insightful and intuitive; in this case, this example seems to be the product of spirit and soul registering in the conscious mind.