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Notice: The original doc. at http://freeassemblage.blogspot.com/2009/07/intuition-vs-acquisition-of-knowledge.html contains live links to references.Intuition Vs. "Acquisition" of KnowledgeThe question was recently posed: Does Metaphysical Naturalism accept theepistemological premises of Plato's intuition of knowledge, or those ofAristotle's acquisition of knowledge?The fact is that man acquires his knowledge from the time of birth, filling histabula rasa from sensory experiences. This is an Aristotilean concept. Plato, onthe other hand, believed there were "permanent objects of knowledge [Forms orIdeas] directly apprehended by intuition (Gk. nohsiV [nóêsis]), the fundamentalcapacity of human reason to comprehend the true nature of reality."http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2h.htmPlato held intuition to be the highest form of "knowing" because it demonstratedreason's ability to comprehend these Forms, which he defined as universals. Thequestion then becomes, where does one acquire the concepts by which intuition isrevealed?They are acquired initially as simple sensory experiences, placed upon the tabularasa where the faculty of reason then applies the hard-wired faculty ofepistemological identification. Just as the faculty of sight and the other sensesare hard wired and begin working immediately, so is the mind's faculty ofepistemological operations.Nothing is in the mind which was not first in the senses--"'Nihil est inintellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu.' All the materials, or content, ofhigher, intellectual cognition are derived from the activity of lower, sensecognition." http://www.ditext.com/runes/n.htmlBut intuition is not moot to the subject of epistemology. It merely does not workuntil there is sufficient material in the mind from which the subconscious canextract such "intuitions."Plato believed intuitions to be direct, non-inferential awareness of abstractionsor of concrete truths. Metaphysical Naturalism defines them as direct inferences,"that a subconscious entity of knowledge or of speculation integrates withconscious material to present to the consciousness both a comprehensive andimmediate metaphysical analysis of the integration." Metaphysical NaturalistGlossaryIn plain English, the subconscious is always on, always working, always analyzing.When a "light bulb comes on over your head" it is an intuition presented to yourconsciousness through its connection to the subconsious, which was working on theproblem all the time.If "something is on the end of your tongue" but you can't find the word that onthe tip, it is because the word has not been culled from the subconscious. Theconscious mind cannot be conscious at all times of all the things of which it wasat one time previously conscious. We would be overwhelmed with images and wordsand music playing in our minds. What is not necessary to have in the "forward"consciousness is stored in the subconsciousness.Aristotle is thus correct about the acquisition of knowledge. Plato is incorrectboth about the nature of "intuition" and about the metaphysical nature of thatwhich can be known.But Aristotle thought knowledge of the essences and natural laws were objects ofcognition which no intuition can reveal, but which science can prove to exist.
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