What does Epistemic Intuition Mean?

Question

I am having some difficulty understanding epistemic intuition in the context of this article: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-realism/#3 (Sec 3.4) What does it mean and what processes does epistemic intuition involve? Why is it accepted a priori? Please Advise. Answers Much Appreciated.

Answer 1

Mood.

Answer 2

"There are two reasons to doubt that such an a priori defense is available.

"In the first place, philosophical defenses of epistemological positions almost always rest, at least in part, on appeals to philosophical "intuitions" regarding particular cases. Although many philosophers regard the deliverances of philosophical intuitions as justified a priori, in fact epistemic intuitions about particular cases deliver to us the results of our trained (or, in some cases, untrained) judgments regarding the domain of inquiry in question."

OK, wow. If you believe in anything in the mind as containing anything that is "a priori" then you can believe such epistemic intuitions have nothing to do with empirical data.

But if you believe the mind at birth is tabula rasa, then nothing is a priori, and all epistemic intuitions come from what has previously been epistemically identified by the consciousness.

This concept places such identifications in the sub-consciousness where the tabula rasa is now filled with millions of bits of data. Such an intuition then becomes nothing more than "psycho-epistemological."

While calling it "nothing more than," it is still a large task for the mind.

"Psycho-epistemology,” [ ] pertains not to the content of a man’s ideas, but to his method of awareness, i.e., the method by which his mind habitually deals with its content."

Leonard Peikoff,

editor’s footnote to Ayn Rand’s “The Missing Link"

"Psycho-epistemology is the study of man’s cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious." Rand

Your question can only be understood from the aspect of another question:

"Do such things as a priori cognitive data exist?"

If you believe they do, you are Socratic/Platonic/Kantian/mystic.

If you believe they do not, you are Aristotelean/Occamist (of Occam's Razor fame)/Randian/rational.

The choice is yours. All sides of the argument are right there in the article. You just have to take sides.

Answer 3

Epistemic intuition requires no other process than belief. It is, for all intents, a knowing without need of deductive reasoning. It is a propositional attitude. It is considered a priori because it is independent of experience. It doesn't rely on proof, investigation, examination, etc, in order to be true. It is purely the minds truth, the instinctual knowing. Strawson once said, speaking about a priori, and this is particualry apt in the context of this article...""you can see that it is true just lying on your couch. You don't have to get up off your couch and go outside and examine the way things are in the physical world. You don't have to do any science"