CHAPTER SIX 



INTUITION 



" The really valuable factor is intuition." — Albert Einstein 



Definition and illustration 



THE word intuition has several slightly different usages, so 

 it is necessary to indicate at the outset that it is employed 

 here as meaning a sudden enlightenment or comprehension of a 

 situation, a clarifying idea which springs into the consciousness, 

 often, though not necessarily, when one is not consciously think- 

 ing of that subject. The terms inspiration, illumination and 

 " hunch " are also used to describe this phenomenon but these 

 words are very often given other meanings. Ideas coming drama- 

 tically when one is not consciously thinking of the subject are 

 the most striking examples of intuition, but those arriving 

 suddenly when the problem is being consciously pondered are 

 also intuitions. Usually these were not self-evident when the data 

 were first obtained. All ideas, including the simple ones that 

 form the gradual steps in ordinary reasoning, probably arise by 

 the process of intuition and it is only for convenience that we 

 consider separately in this chapter the more dramatic and import- 

 ant progressions of thought. 



Valuable contributions on the subject of intuition in scientific 

 thought have been made by the American chemists Piatt and 

 Baker, ^^ by the French mathematicians Henri Poincare^^ and 

 Jacques Hadamard,^" by W. B. Cannon,^^ the American physio- 

 logist, and by Graham Wallas,^^ the psychologist. In writing this 

 chapter I have drawn freely from the excellent article by Piatt 

 and Baker who conducted an enquiry on the subject among 

 chemists by questionnaire. The following illustrations are quoted 

 from material collected by them. 



" Freeing my mind of all thoughts of the problem I walked 

 briskly down the street, when suddenly at a definite spot which 



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