When should we disregard explanations that are intuitively appealing?

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Nicholas Zaza                                TOK

March 31, 2011                                Mrs. McDougall        

When should we disregard explanations that are intuitively appealing?

        There is a time when certain things are appropriate; this is also tied into the theory that we should disregard explanations that are intuitively appealing. Intuition is seen to be a matter of feeling than of thinking, and therefore it can be skewed, even though at first glance it seems to be otherwise.

        Intuition can be helpful in some situations, like when you are looking at a problem in mathematics and you have that moment when you figure it out. Intuition can also be helpful when you think someone is going to do something to you. Yet, intuition is based on the person who is feeling that sudden burst of creativity. Because of this, many people have conflicting intuitions. If someone recalls, there is a type of knowing that involves group acceptation, so if everyone in a group says that 2 +2 is 4, then that is what it is. If people have conflicting ideas, this raises the issue of “is this actually true?” If people are disagreeing upon a certain topic, there will be a questioning of the validity of that idea.

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        Sometimes intuition seems to justify our knowledge claims in various areas of knowledge, but researchers have suggested that these said intuitions must not be just accepted for what they are worth. Intuitions have seemed to cope with the environment of our past, rather than the now.

        The basis of following intuition has been disproven by Newton. It was once believed that for something to be moved it must be pushed, and once the person stops, the object stops moving. Newton stated that every object would keep moving unless acted upon by a force. Our intuition would tell us that ...

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