Monday, March 2, 2009

hi guys.....
i was just wondering if it was possible for 'intuition' or 'having a knack for something' could serve as a way of knowing
Posted by mizz r! at 8:01 AM
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2 comments:

xOxO said...

well, it got me thinking...
can you rely and be certain about your intuition or just having a knack for something since these opinions and perspectives can change in time?

March 2, 2009 at 10:16 AM
kamau_j said...

Very intersting questions mizz r and xOxO. Cosider this example: Albert Einstein, while working on special relativity came across a problem he couldn’t solve for a long time. One day he went to his friend Michele Angelo Besso and started describing the nature of the problem in the hope of getting help. In the middle of doing this he suddenly stopped and told his freind that he thought he solved the problem. The next day, Einstein recounted, he visited his friend again and said to him without greeting, “thank you for listening. I have completely solved the problem.” We are talking about one of the revolutionary ideas in the history of human thought.

Another example. Paul Davies, in his book The Mind of God (P. 145, 1992) tells this story: Henri Poincare, the famous mathematician, spent a lot of time fruitlessly tackling a problem concerning certain mathematical problem. One day he set out on a geological excursion and went to board a bus. Poincare later wrote, “At the moment when I put my foot on the step, the idea came to me, without anything in my former thoughts seeming to have paved the way for it.” So certain was he, he didn’t bother to write down the proof until he returned from the trip.

There are a number of examples like these from different areas of knowledge. How do you describe this way of knowing? What roles do you think intuition and imagination play in the different areas of knowledge?

March 2, 2009 at 8:07 PM

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