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L.E.J. Brouwer emphasized that he regarded that some mental procedures are either language-less or pre-liguistic. Intuition is an imprecisely defined notion but
by igravious 12y ago
L.E.J. Brouwer emphasized that he regarded that some mental procedures are either language-less or pre-liguistic. Intuition is an imprecisely defined notion but I think the main thing to understand is that immediacy is a key component. If we grasp something by intuition there are no steps involved. Also, I don't think that apprehending something by intuition means proving it, proofs always involve rules and mental (or machinic) operations, in this sense knowing something by intuition is not proving that thing in the formal (or informal) sense of the word.
Given all that I think the Oxford dictionary's definition is actually quite spot on. Are you quibbling with it? Happy to hear what you think.
I can post links to Brouwer's writing on these matters.
- tel 12y agoI really wish the "immediacy" aspect were more visibly discussed. It's a great core to the notion of intuition---it also helps separate intuition of a concept from intuition guiding a search for meaning.
- calibraxis 12y agoAs I understand, it's not immediate. It's just our conscious mind suddenly being alerted to it, which leads to the illusion of immediacy. Probably very little of our thoughts are conscious.
- tel 12y agoIn this sense "immediate" means that the reader "grasps" the evidence in a single step---it is basal, axiomatic [0], or assumed. From a Brouwerian POV certain things are axiomatic (continuity and choice sequences are his examples) and must merely be known implicitly to the observer. [0] This word causes other issues, but the, ha, intuition of it is not so bad