Both
Eastern and
Western philosophers have studied intuition. The discipline of
epistemology deals with the concept.
Eastern philosophy In
the East intuition is mostly intertwined with
religion and
spirituality, and various meanings exist in different religious texts.
Hinduism In Hinduism, various attempts have been made to interpret how the
Vedic and other esoteric texts regard intuition. For
Sri Aurobindo, intuition comes under the realm of knowledge by identity. He describes the human psychological plane (often referred to as in
Sanskrit) as having two natures: The first being its role in interpreting the external world (parsing sensory information), and the second being its role in generating consciousness. He terms this second nature "knowledge by identity". Aurobindo finds that, as the result of evolution, the mind has accustomed itself to using certain physiological functions as its means of entering into relations with the material world; when people seek to know about the external world, they default to arriving at truths via their senses. Knowledge by identity, which currently only explains self-awareness, may extend beyond the mind and explain intuitive knowledge. He says this intuitive knowledge was common to older humans (
Vedic) and later was superseded by
reason which currently organises our perception, thoughts, and actions and which resulted in a transition from Vedic thought to metaphysical philosophy and later to experimental science. He finds that this process, is actually a circle of progress, as He says that when self-awareness in the mind is applied to one's self and to the outer (other) self, this results in luminous self-manifesting identity; and the reason also converts itself into the form of the self-luminous intuitional knowledge.
Osho believed human consciousness is in a hierarchy from basic animal
instincts to intelligence and intuition, and humans being constantly living in that conscious state often moving between these states depending on their affinity. He suggests that living in the state of intuition is one of the ultimate aims of humanity.
Advaita vedanta (a school of thought) takes intuition to be an experience through which one can come in contact with and experience
Brahman.
Buddhism Buddhism finds intuition to be a faculty in the mind of immediate knowledge. Buddhism of conscious
thinking, as conscious thought cannot necessarily access
subconscious information, or render such information into a communicable form. In
Zen Buddhism various techniques have been developed to help develop one's intuitive capability, such as
koans – the resolving of which leads to states of minor enlightenment (
satori). In parts of Zen Buddhism intuition is deemed a mental state between the Universal mind and one's individual, discriminating mind. In his works
Meno and
Phaedo, he describes intuition as a pre-existing knowledge residing in the "soul of eternity", and as a phenomenon by which one becomes conscious of pre-existing knowledge. He provides an example of mathematical truths, and posits that they are not arrived at by reason. He argues that these truths are accessed using a knowledge already present in a dormant form and accessible to our intuitive capacity. This concept by Plato is also sometimes referred to as
anamnesis. The study was later continued by his intellectual successors, the
Neoplatonists.
Islam In Islam various scholars have varied interpretations of intuition (often termed as ,
Arabic: , "hitting correctly on a mark"), sometimes relating the ability to have intuitive knowledge to
prophethood.
Siháb al Din-al Suhrawardi, in his book
Philosophy Of Illumination (), from following influences of Plato, finds that intuition is knowledge acquired through illumination and is mystical in nature; he also suggests mystical contemplation () to bring about correct judgment. Also influenced by Platonic ideas,
Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) finds the ability to have intuition is a "prophetic capacity" and he describes intuition as knowledge obtained without intentionally acquiring it. He finds that regular knowledge is based on imitation while intuitive knowledge is based on intellectual certitude.
Early modern philosophy In his book
Meditations on First Philosophy,
Descartes refers to an "intuition" (from the
Latin verb , which means "to see") as a pre-existing knowledge gained through rational reasoning or discovering truth through contemplation. This definition states that "whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive to be true is true";
Contemporary philosophy Intuitions are customarily appealed to independently of any particular theory of how intuitions provide evidence for claims. There are divergent accounts of what sort of mental state intuitions are, ranging from mere spontaneous judgment to a special presentation of a necessary truth. Philosophers such as
George Bealer have tried to defend appeals to intuition against
Quinean doubts about
conceptual analysis. A different challenge to appeals to intuition comes from
experimental philosophers, who argue that appeals to intuition must be informed by the methods of social science. The
metaphilosophical assumption that philosophy ought to depend on intuitions has been challenged by experimental philosophers (e.g.,
Stephen Stich). One of the main problems adduced by experimental philosophers is that intuitions differ, for instance, from one culture to another, and so it seems problematic to cite them as evidence for a philosophical claim.
Timothy Williamson responded to such objections against philosophical methodology by arguing that intuition plays no special role in philosophy practice, and that skepticism about intuition cannot be meaningfully separated from a general
skepticism about judgment. On this view, there are no qualitative differences between the methods of philosophy and
common sense, the sciences, or mathematics. Others like
Ernest Sosa seek to support intuition by arguing that the objections against intuition merely highlight .
Philosophy of mathematics and logic Intuitionism is a position advanced by
L. E. J. Brouwer in
philosophy of mathematics derived from Kant's claim that all
mathematical knowledge is knowledge of the pure forms of the intuition—that is, intuition that is not empirical.
Intuitionistic logic was devised by
Arend Heyting to accommodate this position (it has also been adopted by other forms of
constructivism). It is characterized by rejecting the
law of excluded middle: as a consequence it does not in general accept rules such as
double negation elimination and the use of to prove the existence of something. ==Business decision-making==