Obvious Leo wrote:Yes I can buy that and intuition is a useful enough word to define it. I rely heavily on intuition myself although its not a lot of use in philosophy unless you can find a way to structure your intuitions into a coherent procedure of thought, which is no easy task.
Integrating the unknown. It’s following a sense of what’s right while discovering what’s right, without preconceptions.
In thinking about it, intuition has an aspect of looking for an answer or a solution, or to make a simple choice, such as turn left, or right. In this way it’s connected to intent.
But then other action occurs that is far removed from any specific intent.
For instance, just the other day I was having a cozy chat with one of my daughters while she was cooking for her kids on the gas stove, while here for Christmas cheer. The day before yesterday, I think. Maybe it was the day before that. We were talking politics, but we weren’t really having a discussion. Just some observations back and forth.
In the conversation I called someone a contrarian. I’ve used the word “contrary,” in my life, but not often. And I never remember using the word, “contrarian.”
My daughter is sharp as a tack and she laughingly commented on the this word. A delighted kind of laugh, like a couple of months ago when I called turkeys, “wiley.” The point is, for some reason she felt moved to voice a reaction to that particular word. I too thought it kind of a strange word after I spoke it, but it fit perfectly with the thought I was expressing.
Awhile later I went to the computer machine to peruse, and the first posting I read on Philosophy Now forum contained the word, contrarian. And it was a recent posting. Leo wrote the word.
So, this stuff happens all the time. Little stuff, sometimes big stuff. This is so random and passing that I forgot about it until the word “intuition” was mentioned. It’s not really knowing or intuition, since it’s not connected to a context or intent. Just a random word that I’ve never used before popping into the conversation out of nowhere. And it’s not just words, there are other levels of physicality, such as inexplicable appearances of lost things coinciding with significant events. It’s been going on for years and I don’t contemplate it. More important things to do.
Usually there's no context to mention such things. Things like this really serve no purpose, and there’s no purpose in speaking of it other than wonder, but others can’t share the particular experience or the wonder, so best to just forget looking to minor inexplicables for answers, which I do.
It’s the same as when you feel physically sick and you don’t tell people. There’s no point in telling people if they can’t take away the sickness. Telling only brings the person into your suffering, though sometimes that’s necessary.
But when energy is high some strange things can happen. The smaller stuff is more like a road sign saying, pay attention to this. So, one gives attention to other associated aspects of the manifest situation, such as stoves and other things. I think it’s purely physical, not at all unique so many can relate, and noticing it happens when ego isn’t shouting.
