Is Intuition a Guide to Truth?

Sunday, December 17, 2017
First Aired:
Sunday, August 31, 2014

What Is It

Turns out that Galileo was right and Aristotle was wrong: in a vacuum, a feather and a bowling ball will fall from a tall building at exactly the same speed. This is not to say that Aristotle wasn’t a brilliant thinker; empirical evidence shows he just had a wrong intuition. Even the most powerful intuitions we have can be misleading. Why is it, then, that many philosophers treat them as crucial when arguing for a conclusion? Can intuitions lead us to important truths about the world, or do they merely teach us about ourselves? John and Ken trust their instincts with Alvin Goldman from Rutgers University, author ofPathways to Knowledge: Private and Public.

Listening Notes

在明确了有争议的直觉类型之后,John和Ken开始质疑使用直觉是否是哲学的一种良好实践。哲学家经常精心设计思想实验,并在工作中使用他们产生的直觉作为证据。两人都对这些直觉作为证据的力量表示怀疑,尽管肯指出,直觉在让我们清楚自己的信念方面非常有用。

After welcoming guest Alvin Goodman to the show, the three begin to dig into the question of whether intuitions can lead us to truth. Alvin, an epistemologist, points out difficulties surrounding the question that come from our uncertainty about truth. They then discuss a common application of intuitions: in categorizing judgments. Philosophers often probe people’s intuitions on what type of things fall into certain categories in order to establish and readjust the boundaries of these categories. Alvin points out the importance of intuitions in revealing culturally impressed thought patterns.

听众的提问将话题转向直觉和潜意识之间的关系。约翰指出,直觉可以让我们洞察无意识的思维过程,这是理性推理所不能做到的。一些哲学家声称,我们把哲学过度理性化,失去了与我们的直觉知识的联系。另一些人认为这种直观的“知识”在哲学论述中用作证据是不可靠的。另一位听众提出了一个重要的问题,即在这些直觉问题中是否存在事实。人们对胎儿是否是人有不同的直觉,但理所当然地认为有一个正确的答案。主持人与阿尔文讨论了这些直觉通常是如何分类的问题,以及这些相互冲突的直觉背后可能没有一个真正的答案。

  • Roving Philosophical Report(seek to 6:45): Natalie explores the conflict between intuition and experimental evidence in fields such as linguistics, interviewing Professors Geoff Nunberg and Tom Wasow.
  • 60-Second Philosopher(seek to 46:42): Ian Shaoles takes on our intuitions about new technology and start-up culture.

Transcript

Comments(5)


RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Thursday, October 3, 2019 -- 5:24 PM

What are we really saying

What are we really saying when we use the word "intuition"? It's really almost a completly meaningless word. Does it mean "feelings" does it mean "the last random thing that popped into our head" does it mean "divine inspiration" does it mean "innate calculations" does it me "indoctrinated calculations." It could mean any of these, any combination of these, all of these, or even some blather i havent even blathered yet. Too broad of a term to use in any meaningful way except to leave a gap in meaning or some other artistic expression. Maybe it's better left to theistic enticements that depend on you to put meaning where there never was any to begin with, rather than, rational discourse to explain complex concepts in a meaningful way.

RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Thursday, October 3, 2019 -- 5:46 PM

While a feather and a bowling

While a feather and a bowling ball fall at the same speed, they do not have tge same velocity at impact. When the bowling ball reaches a speed where it impacts into bowling ball powder, the feather bounces like a tennis ball. Saying they fall at the same speed could be seen as a half truth given the stark contrasts right at the end of the demonstration.

两个具有不同引力的物体以相同的速度下落吗?我不得不质疑这个问题,因为木星和我们的卫星之间有巨大的差异。保龄球和羽毛并没有太大的区别。用我们现有的设备来测试这一理论,这种差异可能并不明显;不是用两个非常相似的东西,比如羽毛和保龄球。

RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Saturday, October 5, 2019 -- 6:45 AM

The very first principal we

我们学到的第一个原理是,“牛奶机是什么样的?”

这可能很好地解释了为什么千禧一代如此热衷于情绪化的推理。

Over-active breast feeding.... hmm.

RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Wednesday, November 6, 2019 -- 11:29 AM

I think tho that intuition

I think tho that intuition could be a map to truth. Its natural, after all. But i still think that map has to be read by a qualified technician. Even then, the technician would just be giving a disjuncted opinion.

jpz79's picture

jpz79

Thursday, December 9, 2021 -- 9:53 AM

Seems a bit of cherry picking

似乎有点挑刺。直觉只是非认知(潜意识或伪意识)过程。你所说的“直觉”与经验的直觉是完全不同的,经验的直觉通常会在实验修修补补后得出答案。爱因斯坦在16岁时直觉地认为光速是恒定的,这是很久以后他的相对论的基础。在相对论中也有一些经验的(计算的)直觉——例如爱因斯坦在他的思想实验中“直觉”毕达哥拉斯定理。所以很多时候,直觉跟随实验(或者发生得非常快)。另一个例子是伽利略关于惯性的直觉是正确的.....一个滚下坡的球越快,滚上坡的球越慢,所以它会在没有重力(或空气)的情况下永远惯性地继续下去。

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