# Education & Intuition : Help or Hurt?



## flyintheointment (Jun 15, 2009)

Does learning or education enhance or hurt the use of intuition?

This question came up because thinking too much including questioning your initial sensations too often, can lead you to undervalue an otherwise accurate intuition. 

However, you can develop your intuition by learning how to understand and exercise it through further education. 

So, which is it? 

And how much is trust of intuition affected by previous awareness or knowledge of something? In this case, isn't what we call intuition just a heightened sense of knowing which results from early exposure to particular types of information through particular sensory experiences? Agree or Disagree?



_Please elaborate or provide specifics when giving a response. _


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## Charlie (Jun 7, 2009)

flyintheointment said:


> Does learning or education enhance or hurt the use of intuition?
> 
> This question came up because thinking too much including questioning your initial sensations too often, can lead you to undervalue an otherwise accurate intuition.
> 
> ...



Does it have to be one or the other?


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## EloquentBohemian (Dec 28, 2008)

I believe that it would depend on what you define as education. I imagine that some forms of eduction may enhance and some may harm to differing degrees.


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## Roland (Jun 1, 2009)

to use your intuition you have to have learned something to use it for. You need a beforehand understanding. 

thinking and reasoning have more to do with the beforehand process of understanding.

read blink by malcolm gladwell


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## starri (Jan 23, 2009)

I don't think education affects intuition, it is intuition that affects the method of grasping such education.

For example: 

I cannot dream of randomly opening a page in a textbook and start reading without knowing the big picture of the beginning of the topic. Knowledge assortment in my head takes the form of huge scenarios with constantly added information, everything in a topic has to be interconnected. Along the way specifics and details are dropped from this topic, but the big picture remains. So when I hear some detailed info at uni about some specific cell function it's sorted under the same topic of Bio 101 from school.. The origins and basics are important for me not to let go of in order to be able to grasp new knowledge. So sometimes going back to read simple maths or simple bio helps with more complicated things.

I have friends who do not share these sentiments.


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## Antagonist (Mar 27, 2009)

I think intuition can hurt education, but I doubt the other way around. Not that it directly hinders your learning ability, but that I didn't need to learn anything to get great grades. I never could pay attention in class or read textbooks because my mind would wander and I couldn't grasp the overrall point. I only did great on tests because I think my intuition helped a great deal there. I wouldn't read the text books or listen to lectures, but I could pass any multiple choice test with a 90% or better by simply intuiting the answers. Seriously, multiple choice tests are a joke. (un)Fortunately, almost every high school test is multiple choice. My scores in math completely depended on whether or not I was allowed to use an index card with equations for the test. I could figure out what to do just by looking at the equations, without ever having to listen to the teacher or reading the explanations in the textbook. The end result was that I was way underprepared for college.


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## kdm1984 (Jul 8, 2009)

I always did well in school - all levels.

Now that I am in the real world where I can't apply many theories/abstractions (every job available for me seems to favor extroversion and/or sensing), I am really struggling.

So, at least from my experience - intuition is great for school, but not for the majority of jobs.


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## flyintheointment (Jun 15, 2009)

> Now that I am in the real world where I can't apply many theories/abstractions (every job available for me seems to favor extroversion and/or sensing), I am really struggling.


That's been my experience since I left school, and it's made job hunting and satisfaction a bit difficult.


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## Mutatio NOmenis (Jun 22, 2009)

A regular education system hurts intuition. It strongly emphasises S and J. Things like organization and doing experiemnts are more S than N, as well as a lot of the displays used by teachers to illustrate principals are for S's.


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## kdm1984 (Jul 8, 2009)

The elementary years do stress S and J more, I admit, but college is completely the opposite (at least at the four-year level; community colleges offer more practical majors). I saw so many SJ and SP types drop out of college because they said it was "too theoretical," even at the basic 101 liberal arts courses.


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## OrangeAppled (Jun 26, 2009)

kdm1984 said:


> I always did well in school - all levels.
> 
> Now that I am in the real world where I can't apply many theories/abstractions (every job available for me seems to favor extroversion and/or sensing), I am really struggling.
> 
> So, at least from my experience - intuition is great for school, but not for the majority of jobs.


I'm the same way.

I always say that I am really good at school, but I suck at "real life". 
The social part of school was not easy for me though, but it's not easy for me on jobs either.


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## Selene (Aug 2, 2009)

I think that all four possibilities could be correct at any given point in time.

* 1. Education helps intuition.*

Being exposed to new ideas can set off a lot of lightbulbs and deep introspection.

_ Example: I remember how zealously I examined my own feelings after reading Plato, Aristotle, and Epictetus for the first time 4 years ago._

* 2. Intuition helps education*

When you investigate your thoughts, you clarify your feelings/opinions and produce a lot of new questions/ideas. At that point, you are eager to look outside yourself for new information and see if you can tie that into your personal situation.

_Example: The reason I started studying Stoicism and Buddhism was because I was working through my feelings and trying to cope with a girlfriend breaking up with me.
_ 
* 3. Education harms intuition*

My instincts often tell me that nobody can solve my problem except me, because my feelings are too specialized and tied to my unique personal circumstances. The only way for me to grow is to shut out other people's ideas and just work from my own feelings/thoughts as a starting point. If I try to read a book or website or get advice, then I'm being forced to suppress my own natural way of viewing things and place myself in a completely foreign theoretical framework. It's no help at all.

_Example: Yesterday, I was thinking about my tendency to seek attention, and feeling very confused. I did Google searches for "narcissism" and "attention-seeking", but none of the results which came up applied to me. I eventually gave up on the search and just started journaling instead, and I obtained a lot of insight from that._

* 4. Intuition harms education*

* a)* A highly intuitive person will resist education because they see it as another person trying to force them into denying their feelings and conforming to an outside point of view. They'll see that their deepest truths come from themselves in solitude, and they can't be swayed too easily by other people.

_ Example: I've given up on studying/reading Sartre, Kant, Hume, Locke, Plato, Epictetus, Schopenhauer, Madhyamika/Yogacara Buddhism, and St. John of the Cross...because it didn't click with what I felt was true. I might revisit them, but now I have more to gain from self-examination, and there's no point in reading something that seems totally wrong to me._

*b)* An intuitive person might be fixated on one thing and see other forms of education as just trivial distractions which aren't really worth their time.

_ Example: I was interested in mathematics, physics, political philosophy, metaphysics, and music theory/composition...but I stopped studying these because my true interests lay elsewhere. I try to follow my feelings, even if that means I'm not a fully "educated" or "cultured" person._


Right now, I'm leaning more towards education and intuition being enemies. But when I've exhausted my inner resources, I'll look outward again.


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