Generally a direct relation between the mind and some object, analogous to what common sense thinks is the relation between us and something we see unambiguously in a clear light.
Bergson: contrast intuition as a means of knowing reality as it is in itself with intellect as a means by which we manipulate reality for purposes of action.
What we are said to intuit may be objects not accessible to the senses (numbers, universals, God etc.), or truths. The emphasis is on the directness of the relation, free from any influence of the environment or interpretation.
Kant: used intuition for our relation to sensible objects too, so far as this was considered as abstracted from anything contributed by the mind.
Russell: Kant's use of intuition has something in common with Russell's acquaintance.
Intuition of truths may take the form of knowledge which we
cannot account for, simply because we are unconscious of the reasons which led
us to it (the intuition attributed to women and bank managers). In the case of
such "hunches" investigation will often uncover the reasons.
More philosophically important are cases where, allegedly, there are no reasons
to be uncovered, and no means of checking the truth of apparent intuitions,
except by their coherence with further intuitions.
Intuitions of this kind have been important especially in philosophy of mathematics (intuitionism) and ethics, and also in logic and metaphysics.
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